Gamer-X
by crazyaolguy
Summary: Zeppo is a Gamer. How will Xander fare when given with powers of a Gamer. BTVS/ The Gamer Crossover. YAHF.
1. I am THE GAMER

Gamer-X Chapter 1: I am THE GAMER, a Buffy: The Vampire Slayer + Manhwa/Korean Comics/만화 Crossover fanfic | FanFiction

Chapter 1 - I am THE GAMER

Oct 31, 2002 Thursday. Halloween... Sunnydale.

**[New Quest Created – Find the Kids] Find all the kids under your charge and take them to their parents who are waiting at Sunnydale High School. Time Limit – 30 Minutes. Experience: 30 Xp. Failure: Loss of Reputation within Sunnydale.**

Xander was a little disoriented... So he blinked a few times and shook his head to try to clear the window that was floating in front of him. This was a window that he or rather his character was intimately familiar with. So he clicked it off and then ran to find the kids and finish this quest. He'd worry about this stuff later.

Almost on the dot 30 minutes later he was able to finish the quest. Which triggered the Completion Window. He didn't want to think about this. The implications of what was happening to him was pretty much earth shaking.

Or, maybe, he needed to sit down and think about this. He said his good-byes with Willow and Buffy and immediately ran towards his house.

Sometime later, he was thinking furiously, sitting in his basement.

After testing a few commands verbally, he was able to find **[Status]**, **[Inventory]**,** [Skills]** and the **[Options]** windows. Oh yeah, he tested pause and log-off... Which didn't work as he'd expected it too.

He was looking at his skills list and there were only a couple skills he could use actively. In fact all the higher-level Martial Arts skills had a restriction of having his Inner energy skills at level 20 at least. He was left with Create/Escape Instant Dungeon, Bind, Dispel and Observe. Nothing he could use in combat.

**Create/Escape**: Create Instant Dungeons for training or fighting.

**Bind**: Creates mana ropes to bind your opponent.

**Dispel Curse**: Remove Curse via Mana Manipulation.

**Observe**: Gives Information about the Target.

Xander palmed his face and groaned, "It seems like I'm not going to be jumping around and flicking vampires into dust any time soon. The only skills I can use or practice right now are based on **Wudang Martial** arts or build Inner Energy by **Nine Yang** or **Nine Yin Divine Manuals**... "

"Sheesh, I lucked out by getting this gamer skill... But I have negative modifiers in INT and WIS... Damn being classed as a slacker hurts…" He chuckled as he read the info from the status window.

**[New Quest Created] Find out about the origin of your powers. Time Limit: No Limit. Experience: 30 xp.**

"Now that's interesting." Just today he had created his character (**Xander-The Gamer**) after discovering his ruined army fatigues. The idea to create this character came during his contemplation (not brooding. No sir, that's dead boy's area of expertise). Of course, he ended up penning more of this character with his favorite **Chinese Wuxia** series to make it a major all-round bad-ass.

In his gamer avatar, during the possession, he was able to dispel the curse on the children and kill a few vampires... Netting him a couple of extra levels... and $150 (would you believe vampires dropped loot? Woot woot).

Even though he was surprised after the possession to see his characters Gamer's power. He wasn't freaking out and he decided kept his own counsel on this. This could be his way of getting stronger and helping Buffy face the darkness. Let's not forget that he also had major mad-on against vampires for turning Jesse into a vampire...

Now all he needed to know was how to utilize this ability.

Though he was surprised to see so much reduction of his stats. Now he was a beginner character. Only he had some extra skills. He had no idea about how these skills remained. His Halloween counterpart had started as a mage and mastered a few spells to the max... Though he wasn't able to remember much of those spells... His memory was muddled for some reason.

Sitting on his bed, he decided not to brood and start planning, "I should be able to spend a few hours building up Inner Energy using the **Nine Yang Skill** just like Zhang Wuji did... Wudang's one is a diluted version so, no need to level up..."

Then getting up early tomorrow morning, I can use some of my old weights to train... I should be able to use 20-30 kilos helping me improve STR. Putting points in anywhere right now would be stupid... Build as much as possible using hard work (thus removing my slacker modifier)... I should be able to get into 40-50 in STR, VIT, DEX in a month or so..."

**Ding**, "Wisdom increased by 1".

"Holy..."

"In Games, Wisdom effects how well you control mana. In Tabletops WIS is often used to show how much psychological stress you can handle. With my Gamer's Ability, I got a level up after choosing a good idea."

"So wisdom is increased by choosing the best ideas? That's pretty much how it works in real life. You always have options. Which options you choose depends on how wise you are. I have to work on it... Hopefully I'll be able to increase both WIS and INT without putting points in it."

Enough dawdling, Let's activate, "**Nine Yang Divine Skill**" and start leveling it up right now.

**Nine Yang Divine** while activated... Increases STR/VIT/DEX/INT/WIS actively.

After a few hours...

"Whoa... even after getting distracted by random window pop ups, I was able to level up the skill 3 times... and it's 4 am... Surprisingly I'm not feeling tired or fatigued mentally. It seems like besides healing this skill removes fatigue. Gamers Ability or not I shouldn't avoid any sleep. Even though I can spend few days sleeping less".

After setting the alarm for 6 am, he went to sleep and woke up with a pop up showing he completely restored his HP/MP.

"Let's work out... I won't be able to improve Dex here... because Dex is about not only dexterity but also speed of movement."

1 hour of workout didn't yield him any STR improvement.

"Maybe I should add more weights... Just like Dragonball Z... heh... With Gamer's body, any kind of injury whether its crippling or not... It doesn't show on my body and can be healed. I should at least test this idea. It won't hurt for too long."

"I can use **"Instant Dungeon"** while I'm in school to work on my VIT and DEX as much as I can..." He started putting weights; old school bags and anything he thought would help him train in school grounds into his inventory.

\- During School -

While sitting during the class and getting bored, "You know If I'm guessing right then studying should improve some of my INT and help to get rid of the slacker modifier raising my INT and WIS."

"And If I find a book on Speed reading and memorizing stuff... combining both of these books should help me increase my INT passively and actively.

**Ding**, "Making informed decision increases WIS by 1"

"Yup, I thought so... I planned quite a lot yesterday... but it didn't leveled up... but now... So if I brainstorm tons of ideas and then chose the best possible to work on will increase my WIS... after all Wisdom is all about knowing what to do and when to do"

**Ding** "WIS increases by 1"

"Damn this ability is so broken... he he he... I am so going to break reality"

During the walk to school he was leveling up **[Observe]** and **[Instant Dungeon]** creation/escape. He knew with few hundred people in school it was great way of leveling up his observe. "Of course, **[Observe] **skill has a lot of potential. Not only knowing about other people's stat but also their strengths and weaknesses. I wonder would it be possible to **[Observe] **skills and techniques and learn them?"

Later during the lunch break...

"So girls, anything leftover from yesterday?" Xander asked his best friends.

Buffy hit the desk and groaned... "Besides some extra French that I now know, I have these itchy fingers wanting to sew and design patterns."

He teased, "Ah so your inner feminist and femininity fighting for attention. You know learning some feminine things won't make you weak slay-pal."

Buffy mock growled, "Shut up Xander... and no more discussion about lady useless."

"What about you Wills, any out of body experiences?"

"I keep touching and testing to see if I can still walk through the walls or objects."

"By touching, you mean bumping and then realizing you aren't incorporeal anymore?" Buffy teased her.

Willow's glare didn't stop both of them from chuckling at her...

"Well girls, I need to check out library to see few things..." Xander said as he was picking up his stuff.

\- In Library -

"Hey G-man, where you skulking around?"

"Xander, must you use... ahhh... never mind. What can I do for you?"

"G-man, do you think per chance our fabulous library has a book on speed reading?"

"Speed reading, I doubt it... That topic comes under self-help... And because it's a school's librarian that chooses the selection of books for the school too buy. Thinking about previous librarians, I believe that this school's library has very low chances of having it... at least I haven't seen it since I arrived here." He added, "You should know Xander, that speed reading takes a lot of time to develop that skill."

"Really? I had this great idea of not spending much time on reading by improving my speed"

Giles chuckled while fiddling with his glasses, "You are not the first one to think of it... If you want you can look for Evelyn Wood Speed Reading Book to help you with... And I can also teach you speed-reading. It works as advertised but like any worthwhile skills, you have to put up lot of effort in mastering it."

"Can you really teach it?" Xander was excited to learn a skill without spending a dime. His money could be used for better purposes like getting more skill books.

"Of course, I can. I can read at 1100 WPM... Bring any book which doesn't require any practical practice and I'll show you how to speed read."

**Ding** "**[Speed Reading]** Skill Learned (Level 1)"

The rest of the school day went by and Xander was practicing and leveling up his speed-reading skills... at such a low starting level, it was easy to level up. Of course his classmates and teacher were a little hesitant to see new-Xander... You know how in Sunnyhell, anything out of place can actually kill you.

\- After School at Track -

At school track, the track and field club was occupied as club members were running around practicing... Most of them were in the range of 5-10 for their levels. The club captain was one of the top 5 nationally ranked players at Level 10. For teenagers this was quite high, so it wasn't as surprising to him. These people put lot of effort into their games. So naturally they were going to be at the highest point in their bell curve.

His **[Observe]** skill gave him great info. His teachers and adults were all around level 15. Well every teacher except Giles and Miss Calendar who were at level 28 and 19 respectively. He was surprised to see Giles level. He was pretty damn close to Buffy (31). But nowhere near as fast or strong as slayer. Why?

Hopefully after leveling up **[Observe]** high enough, he'd get some idea.

So far, normal human who weren't involved with the super-natural were around level 15. The small picture that he could see clearly for normal humans, more experience, higher your level is... Seems quite similar to games.

If he wanted to help Buffy dust vampires, then he'd need some rough reference to how strong they were...

**Vampires** – 3 or 4 Times stronger than humans, they also get stronger as they age – Their level is unknown... well, until he meet some later during patrol.

**Slayer –** Level 31... Kicks around normal vamps without breaking a sweat. Also gets stronger with time. Technically she must have some massive buffs from mystical empowerment.

**Giles **– Level 28 – Why and how the hell?

**Dead boy** – Is how old? About 200+ years... Right. So it'd give me good info about how age affects vamps.

**Other Demonic scum** – No Info.

**Mystical Humans** – No Info so far.

"I need to level up my **[Observe]** skill ASAP".

Shaking his head and clearing the thoughts out... He focused on what he was about to do.

An occupied field was no problem for Xander. He was planning and deciding what exercise he could use to improve his STR/VIT/DEX... He had pilfered a few of the physical education books from library... It seemed to him that running while wearing a weighted vest (rather his weighted school bag) would give him STR/DEX and VIT (long running).

"If I use those stairs, I can add more difficulty and it should add up to DEX. Worst case scenario, I have to run sprints or run an obstacle course to improve DEX."

He looked on eagerly for any new alert pop ups, "Hmm. No WIS points this time... Man I was getting used to them. Anyways its only 2:30 PM and I can practice for 3-4 more hours... Then go home, practice **Nine Yang** and then meet up with girls around 9-10 at the Bronze"

"Create **[Instant Dungeon]**. Nice... I wonder how far this dungeon goes?"

In the end he was able to improve 3 points in STR, 2 points in both DEX/VIT. Of course he had to use **Nine Yang Skill** to recharge his fatigue and HP points... So he ended up leveling **Nine Yang Skill** by 1 Point too (Level 6).

\- At bronze 9:30 -

He was sitting around and thinking heavy thoughts (which wasn't like him at all). He had gained another point in STR, DEX and **Nine Yang Skill** by doing weighted squats and jumping sideways randomly. **Nine Yang Skill** seemed to be worth its weight in gold to him... There was a reason why it was labeled as a "divine" skill.

Just a 10% passive buff to STR, VIT, DEX, and INT, WIS at level 1 was a good enough reason to him. But when you think about it the buffs he should receive at higher levels... he shuddered with excitement.

Earlier in the day while he was in the library, he had already tested skill books. He didn't try to learn anything from those skill books. In games, skill books get destroyed and Giles would have his hide if he found any book missing.

But testing it was still eye opening. Anything practical would immediately be available to him. While anything theory based, well that's what speed-reading and memorization were for. He had decided to make a trip to second hand books shop and gather some valuable skill books.

Mostly he was thinking of a crafting skill, because reality in this case trumped games. People with high level of crafting or art skills could make money relatively easily. Well a cooking skill would be needed to start off (to cook and store high HP food).

"Hey Xander, it's quite surprising to see you thinking" Buffy teased as Willow giggled...

"Hardy har har... Buffinator, I do think... sometimes... I think" He responded and got punched by Buffy for adding that adjective to her name.

He sighed... "You girls have some extra time today, I have to talk to both of you somewhere we won't be over heard"

Both girls looked at each other at his question and it was Buffy who took the lead... "What's happening Xander? You are being way too serious."

"It's nothing scary... and not here Buff, let's go somewhere private"

"We can use my house, my parents are out of town... Let's ditch bronzing for today. We can later go patrolling from house" Willow said.

\- At Willow's House -

"Before I start, I want you two to promise me, not to tell anyone about it." He stopped any interruption to this idea "We'll tell Giles in few days. I promise you it's nothing serious or something that can hurt us".

"Xander if you promise, you'll tell Giles soon, then at least I can keep mum for some time", Buffy relented after seeing the serious look on Xander's face. He was not one of those who would put his friends in danger. She knew that... Xander's loyalty was absolute. He'd rather die for his friends than let them get hurt.

Willow also promised not to tell on him with similar conditions. He was glad that they were ready to listen to him, after that hyena fiasco.

"You know, how I was planning to go as Army Guy? Well After I found my army fatigues ruined... I had to change my plan yesterday."

Xander explained in detail, how he had sketched out his character (by showing them his character sheet) and how after it was done and finished... He ended up gaining powers similar to his created character.

"Wow... So what does this mean, Xander? Do we have to de-magicify you? Can it even be done?" Buffy asked little worriedly obviously thinking about the hyena incident.

He glared at her with "Are you really that stupid?" look... "Buff, if I can use these gamer powers, which I can, as I've tested out for the entire day and gained new levels in my skills to show for it."

"This is a great chance for me to get stronger. Regardless of what you say, we are not going to ditch you in slaying... and now I have powers which can help us a lot"

"Xander can you create a party and invite a member?" Willow asked him after some thinking.

"You know, I have no idea. It'd be so damn cool if it works... Let's test it."

**Create Party** "Scoobies".

**Ding**, Party 'Scoobies' created.

"Invite Willow."

Willow jumped up as a blue window suddenly popped in front of her. "Holy... this is real..."

Buffy interjected, "Really can you see it? I can't see anything"

Willow asked, "You can't see this window? Hmm. Maybe only people who are affected by this power can see this window. Xander, invite Buffy"

"You know Wills, don't forget, inviting Buffy with such a difference in our levels is going to kill our experience points for all of us. Anyways 'invite Buffy'"

"Whoa, I can see the blue window... Do I click yes?"

"Yeah, we are just testing what can be done with this gamer power right now. Now, Wills and Buff say 'status' and check if it works for you guys."

"Status" both Willow and Buffy said immediately.

**Willow Level 3**

**Job:** Research Gal

**Title:** Nerd

**Level**: 3 Next Level (0.0%)

**HP**: 150 (50 pts. for every level)

**Mana**: 638 (580+ 58 Mana affinity 10%)

**STR**: 4

**VIT**: 7

**DEX**: 7

**INT**: 58

**WIS**: 10

**LUK**: 12

**Points**:0

**Money**: 0

STATUS: Nerd (-20 % gain in popular crowd), Research Gal (+20% reduction in times during Research).

**Buffy Summers**

**Job:** Demon slaying

**Title:** Vampire Slayer

**Level:** 31 Next Level (0.0%)

**HP:** 5000

**Mana:** 1000

**STR:** 12 (62)

**VIT:** 12 (62)

**DEX:** 15 (65)

**INT:** 16 (-10)

**WIS:** 8

**LUK:** 21

**Points:0 Money: 0** **STATUS:** Slayer (+50 in STR/VIT/DEX), -10 INT (Reluctance to Slayer Duties).

Willow looked at her status and said, "My status is little depressing. -20% in social situations for being a nerd."

"Hey I have – 10 INT. What does INT mean Xander?" Buffy asked.

"INT means intelligence. In RPG games, the higher the Intelligence stat the better Magic skills you have. Willow with 50 INT is going to be our Mage. I am close to becoming a fighter-mage but I have a -20 INT modifier for being a slacker."

"Its irritating that I am losing 20 of my intelligence points because of being a slacker. So I am putting all of my efforts into changing my habits and getting rid of this modifier. Here I am, new hard worker Xander. Good at studying, sports and sweeping damsels off their feet."

Both girls giggled and rolled their eyes at his proclamation.

"Anyways, guys understand this, we have the weekend coming up. We have 2 whole days of grinding... I am sure that we can enter into the 20's in terms of STR/VIT/DEX just by working out properly.'

"I also learned and gained **[Speed Reading]** skill from Giles. So it should help me gain INT points too. I also found that any practical based book could be used as 'skill book' like in various RPG video games. So here Willow, try this book and see if you get a prompt for learning a skill. I bought the book for you guys as it's telling me that I already know the skill."

Willow took the book and suddenly got a prompt in a blue box.

"Would you like to learn **[Speed Reading]**?"

"Yes, Yes YESSSS... Xander I am getting the prompt to learn the skill." Willow was literally jumping for joy imaging the possibilities with this amazing ability. Both Xander and Buffy were amused as they watched their nerd friend jumping around.

"So Xander, any more fiendish plans you might have?"

"He he he. Buffy, I have so many plans. Tomorrow we'll grind and grind and grind and become stronger".

"I'd rather have you two safe and sound, Xander" Buffy said.

"And that's why it's important for both Willow and I to level up. With this party function and you working as the tank... We can level up faster... When we achieve a similar level to yours then you too should be able to level up faster".

Buffy seemed a little excited about this. "Well, it's a date then."

Xander grinned and rubbed his hands... "I have plans, massive plans for both of you. But right now we have to go and patrol... and I'll show you some of my tricks."

"Create **[Instant Dungeon]**, here you go."

Buffy felt the change in environment. Her acute slayer senses were good enough to notice such a huge shift.

"Buffy, Willow this is an instant dungeon, it's empty... its used for either training or fighting other mages/opponents. Right now my Level 10 skill can only create Empty and Zombie dungeons".

"Zombies", Buffy almost shrieked... "You didn't tell us about that... You mister, don't go experimenting with stuff just like that".

"It's ok Buffy. It's like a bonus for leveling up **Instant Dungeon Creation Skill**. So far I haven't actually created Zombie dungeons... I am not actually raising zombies but creating zombies as illusions to practice and train."

Willow interjected and showed why she had such High INT score "Xander do you think these dungeons can have different status effects?"

"What do you mean Wills?" Xander was curious... this sounded like something good.

"You know how I have 'Nerd' title, you have 'Slacker' for yours. I am wondering if it's possible to add any kind of status effects to instant dungeons... Think hyperbolic time chamber from DBZ or High Gravity for training".

Xander blinked, "Now that's a thought. I have no idea... I think I should level up my **[Instant Dungeon]** skill and see if I get an option like 'Zombie Dungeon' There is a good chance we might get different dungeons options"

"Now lets train for a few minutes and then we'll leave for patrol".

"Willow you have the most INT of any of us... So you should be able to do lots of magic stuff. With my gamer assisted ability, it should help. So put your amazing brain into gear and test few things." First I'll teach you how to create an **[Instant Dungeon] **then after I'll explain speed-reading to Buffy as I don't have any more books to burn."

He explained, "You should feel the power or magic coming up in your hand." He flared his mana in his hand to show Willow, "and then allow the world to create an Instant dungeon for you for training. There is nothing complex, no complicated visualization. Just let it go".

"Bompf"... **[Mana bolt]** created. "What was that?" Buffy asked as she felt that small explosion of mana.

"Willow was gathering mana in her hand and it exploded outwards creating a new skill. Test that later Willow. Try again. Think about Mana coming up your hand and the world creating an Empty dungeon for you", he instructed her.

After testing few times, she was able to create her first **[Instant Dungeon]**. He also explained how to break out of it. Letting her try and create her own instant dungeons a few times... He turned towards Buffy and started helping her gain new skill.

For the next 10 minutes, Xander explained speed-reading to Buffy. He remembered Giles warning that learning and teaching speed reading wasn't a big deal. The basic techniques could be learned in as little as 5 minutes but the issue comes with recalling what you read. That's the test you have to succeed in if you want to get good at speed-reading.

And like he thought, in about 10 minutes Buffy got message about learning the Skill **[Speed Reading]**. As he was explaining to her how she could level up this skill as long as she's in his party. They both were startled by a scream.

EeeeKKKKKK...

"Willow"

"Willow are you alright", Xander/Buffy asked a horrified Willow who was pointing at the wall...

"Xanderohmygodiwastestingandsuddenlywooshandboomanditdestroyedthewall", Willow babbled hysterically.

Xander who was expert on Willow babble understood clearly. "So you were able to create a technique which destroyed that wall... Hmm. If I remember right about the description of "**Instant dungeon**" then this destruction shouldn't be carried on to the real world."

"Escape **[Instant Dungeon]**. See, nothing on the wall... This is why this instant dungeon is such a great training tool, we can destroy or abuse it as much as possible and nothing happens to the real world".

"Now show me the technique, "Create **[Instant Dungeon]**".

Willow took few heavy deep breaths and explained, "You know, I was testing the magic and it was far easier than lifting pencils that Miss Calender taught me."

"I was able to create and shape mana as I wanted... so I ended up creating a mana arrow and then threw it at the wall to see what would happen and I was ended up creating a new skill called **[Mana Arrow]**."

"That's it?" Xander exclaimed, "You just shaped mana and then hurled it at the wall? That's too freaking easy".

"Yeah, I think it's because of your gamer assisted ability. With this we'd be able to create a shield and different types of mana based attacks. We should get some old D&amp;D and other RPG/Fantasy based booklets to get some ideas on mana based attacks."

"**Ding**, WIS increased by 1".

"Hey my WIS increased" Willow excitedly yelled.

"Good going Wills... Now I think its time we should leave for patrolling", Xander said.

\- During Patrol -

"Nice attack Wills that arrow was a critical hit on fangy..." He cheered as Willow's spinning mana arrow pierced a vampire's chest and dusted him. You can never kill too many vampires... those were Xander's thought on vamps.

He himself had experimented with mana arrow gaining a new skill... and then proceeded to throw arrows at vampires to distract them while Buffy was wiping the floor with them... damn that girl made it look easy.

"Woot, I just got new skill... Spinning Mana arrow, it increases damage massively"

"Woot? Willow, you are letting your inner nerd out today," Buffy teased as she dusted the last vamp. While Xander was picking up some loot... Buffy thought that was such a novel concept... money made the idea of slaying digestible.

"Damn my Jimmy Choo fund could always use a few hundred extra bucks". Buffy said and grinned at Xander who was counting the loot.

Both Xander and Willow laughed at her... "You know we got about $350 as drop loot. How about I give you $150 and me and Willow can split the remaining $200 dollars. I am thinking of using this money to help us grind and level up ourselves."

"Well then, you can keep it Xander", Buffy was less chirpy... most likely pained at the thought of losing $150... but friends comes first... "Sigh"...

"Thanks Buff, I'll start early tomorrow and spend the whole day grinding different skills and stats... In the next two days, I think I can get my major stats like STR/VIT/Dex into the 20's. Willow you should bring more than a few piles of books to read and acquire new skills. Think of it, I'll write you a list of stuff... So how about we meet at school around 7 am?"

Buffy shrieked, "7 am... it's the weekend and I am sleeping till 10. Nope, no way, nada. At best I'll be there at around 9:30"

"Same for me, I'll be there at around 9," Willow agreed. She had a 10 MB net connection so she was planning to download some extra stuff that might help them gain extra skills and stuff.

With that Xander and the party said their goodbyes and went for their separate houses.

**RECAP**

**Skills Leveled Up**

Nine Yang Divine Skill (Level 6)

Speed Reading (Level 3 500 WPM with 20% comprehension)

Inner Energy (Level 2).

Observe (Level 12)

Create/Escape Instant Dungeon (Level 10)

Mana Arrows (Level 2).

Spinning Mana Arrows (Level 1)

**STR:** 10

**VIT**: 10

**DEX:** 13

**WIS: **23

**Name: Alexander 'Xander' Harris**

**Job:** The Gamer

**Title:** Zeppo

**Level:** 3 Next Level (15.0%)

**HP: **150

**Mana: **436

**MP Recovery/Minute -** 1% of Total Mana Points.

**HP Recovery/Minute -** 5 HP.

STR: 6 + 5 (1) + 0.6 (10) + 0.6 (11) = 12.2

VIT: 8 + 5 (1) + 5 (3) + 0.8 (10) + 0.8 (11) = 19.6

DEX: 10 + 5 (1) + 1 (10) + 1 (11) = 17

INT: 28 + 5 (1) + 5 (3) + 2.8 (10) + 2.8 (11) -20 (Slacker) = 23.6

WIS: 20 + 2 (10) + 2 (11) – 10 (WIS) = 14

LUK: 7

**Points:** 10 **Money:** $150

**STATUS:** Well Known Slacker (-20 INT, -10 WIS), Zeppo (-10 WIS in social situations).

**SKILLS:**

**1\. Wudang Martial arts:** Learning the basics of Long fist, Giqong, Neigong and Qingong. Wudang styles are known for their swift movement and precise attack/counter-attack based stances. Passively Increases STR, VIT, DEX and INT +5 (Level-Max).

**2\. Inner Energy:** This skill allows user to do superhuman feats from leaping to fast movements to easily cause destruction. It passively increases STR, VIT, DEX, INT and WIS (10%). Activation On Level 20.

**3\. Medical Knowledge:** Dr Hu Qingniu and His wife's Medical and Poison Manual. Teaches Herbalism, Acupuncture, Acupressure and Inner-Energy Healing. Passively/actively Increases INT +5, VIT+5 (Level-MAX).

**4\. Cloud Ascending Ladder:** Wudang's Qing-gong (Light Body Skills), allows the user to move travel at extremely high speeds and leap to extreme heights. Passively Increases DEX and INT. Actively Increases +30 DEX. Requires Inner Energy - 20

**5\. Taiji Fist:** Martial arts style created by Zang Sanfeng. It comprises of 88 moves and stances. True essence of this style is to use opponents weight and movement with minimal effort. Passively Increases WIS. Requires Inner Energy - 20

**6\. Taiji Sword:** based on Taiji Fist... 55 stances/moves. With mastery of this sword style you can defeat your opponent with minimal effort. Requires Inner Energy - 20

**7\. Wudang Nine Yang Skill:** Diluted version of Nine Yang Divine Skill because of incomplete instruction... This is Wudang's most powerful Neigong... which builds immense inner energy... Passively Increases INT and WIS.

**8\. Heaven and Earth Great Shift:** Ming Sect's Most Prized technique. Requires Very strong Inner Energy Foundation. This skill allows user to trans-locate and focus energy from one direction to another and direct enemies attack away. Additional aspect of this art is that it allows user to perceive the flow of energy in himself and his opponents thus allowing him to understand external martial arts better.

There are 7 levels of this skill. Higher your mastery of Inner energy, faster and easier it'll be for user to learn it.

Passively Increases STR, VIT, DEX, INT (10%).

Active Effect – STR, DEX, INT.

Requirements: Inner Energy Skill level at 70 and INT/WIS/DEX/VIT – 70.

**9\. Holy Flame Fist:** Created by Hassan-I Sabbah. Complementary skill to first 2 levels of Heaven and earth great shift. Increases mastery of Heaven and earth shift to higher level.

Causes Temporary Insanity and Nervous breakdown (-20 INT and -20 WIS).

Requirements: Mastery of First 2 Levels of Heaven and Earth Great Shift.

**10\. Nine Yang Divine Skills: **Complete Version of Neigong System, which builds Super human inner energy levels. It also has ability to heal any injuries in very short time. This skill enhances learning process and grants access to Higher Level martial skills, which requires Strong Inner Energy foundation.

Meditation, +30 MP per min, slowly raises mana pool.

Passively Increases STR, VIT, DEX INT and WIS (10%).

Activation only at Inner-Energy Level 20 – Ki/Inner Energy Strikes, -15 MP STR/DEX Increase,

**11\. Nine Yin Divine Skill:** Complementary Neigong system from Ancient Tomb Sect, which builds strong inner energy foundation. This Neigong system is known to increase any martial artists inner energy reserves tremendously.

Meditation, +30 MP per min, slowly raises mana pool.

Passively Increases STR, VIT, DEX INT and WIS (10%).

Activation only at Inner-Energy Level 20 – Ki/Inner Energy Strikes, -15 MP STR/DEX Increase,

**12\. Nine Yin White Bone Claw:** Technique based on Nine Yin Manual. Improper training without proper foundation in Nine Yin Inner Energy can lead to temporary Insanity. Fast Precise attacks allows user to catch their opponent unawares and then absorb their life force. + 30 to VIT/DEX. +15 to STR.

**13\. ID Create/Escape:** Create Instant Dungeons for training or fighting.

**14\. Bind:** Creates mana rope and bind your opponent.

**15\. Dispel Curse:** Remove Curse via Mana Manipulation.

**16\. Observe:** Gives Information about the Target.

**17\. Gamer's body:** Grants a body that allows user to live the real world like a game. (Level MAX)

**18\. Gamer's Mind:** Allow a peaceful state of mind and immunity to psychological effect. (Level MAX)

**If you are interested in seeing a complete list of Stats for main Characters Xander/Willow/Buffy so far. Then here are the Google Docs files that you can View. I'll be updating this with every chapter and planning to add Skills List (at least for Xander). Spreadsheets/d/1yLdnBAadWayDbChRmLen1thWe9l-Vk4tHzr95xvh_Yw/edit? usp=sharing**

**This is my first fic.**

**I started this crossover with the idea of having The Gamer as comic inspiration. But then later on I felt, it'd be much better for me to create the world similar to The Gamer Story. I'll be adding more explanation on this as I build the world.**

**I've only played RPG in video games (Mass effect)... Never cared much about the math behind the stats... So if you think I am making any mistakes about stats distribution in anyway. Let me know, I'll fix it.**

**(Though I am thinking of putting up a excel file on Google docs with chapter wise distribution of Scoobie's stats.)**

**One thing I am curious or unknown about the stats is... Mana = 10 X INT. I have Xander with a – 20 Modifier for being a slacker. How the heck will you count for his mana Pool? With or without Slacker modifier?**

**Personally I can't decide which would be.**

**NOTE: All the Energy Based Stats Modifiers are Same as Chunbu Techniques from "The Gamer" Web Comic. Like I said, I am not very familiar with RPG Video games. So I used Chunbumoon's stats from the Comic and then decided how and when they are activated and it is something I added from Jin Yong's Novel Series. For example, Unlike Chunbu's techniques, Xander can only use passive effects... They'll be activated when his Inner-energy is high enough. This is very common in Jin Youngs Novel. This is why you'll find odd requirements and activation in Inner-Energy Based Skills. I.e. Nine Yang Divine Skill, Nine Yin Divine Skill, Heaven and Earth Great Shift, Nine Yin White Bone Claw. From the stories, user can get some buffs or sometimes de-buffs if they made a mistake... i.e. In the Original Story, One character died while practicing Heaven and Earth Great Shift.**

121


	2. Grind of the Day

Chapter 2 - Grind of the Day

\- 7: 05 AM At school Ground -

Xander was going through Wudang martial arts katas. There were total of 17 katas in this system. This is foundational stuff that Wudang student learned once they joined the school. Once you show enough proficiency in basic Martial arts, then your teacher or senior students might teach you other advanced styles which made them famous throughout China.

The way of Wudang Martial arts is about using less power to maximize potential. From its fist techniques, foot techniques, stances, defense, attack/counters. Everything was about maximizing potential while using less or minimum power.  
Wudang has 5 major weapons, Sticks, Seven Star Sword, Broadsword, Fan and Deer Hook. Right now all he had was European style straight swords. Willow had ordered all the weapons online, hopefully, they'll recieve it during the week.

Looking at the list of Martial arts in front him, He snorted, "Now I know how to kick ass, all I need to do is to learn how to look good while doing it."

From the Chinese story, Zhang Wuji did learn the basics from his father since he could walk. Traditionally students learn these skill for 10 years. But then, Wuji got injured and then had to learn Nine Yang Divine Skill to heal himself...

He said to himself, "If I remember right, then Wuji spent all day long for about 5 years only practicing Nine Yang Divine skill and he become skilled enough to join top Martial Artist of his era."

"I am so tempted to sit down and meditate on Nine Yang Neigong skill... But Right now I should up my other major stats while building as much inner energy as possible. That should increase not only my martial arts skill but also mana reserves."

During previous day's patrol, both Xander and Willow had gained another level.. Now both were Level 4... He was surprised that killing vamps got them enough experience to level up... He and Willow had caught good rhythm going on. One of them hit [Spinning Mana arrow] and cripple the vamps, other would bind it and then dusting was child's play. Destroying legs pretty much kills their superior ability and binding cuts down on their strength.

For next 2 and half hour, he would keep practicing his kata... leveling up 2 times and improving his DEX/VIT by 1.

At dot 9:30 AM Willow arrived, carrying huge bag with her...

"You know mister, if you needed these books you should have carried yourself".

"Good morning Wills, it's nice day isn't it" He teased her. "So were you able to gather stuff I told you?"

"Yeah, it was easy enough to download with 10 Mb connection. So you are planning to create crafting skill?" She replied and then kept babbling on "You made me download everything from wood working, to leather working, clothes, stone, metal... oh I found some videos on creating swords too"

"Breathe Wills... I have a plan that cannot fail..." He chuckled and then took the DVD she brought.

Ding **[Crafting Skill] Acquired.**  
[Crafting Skill] Increased by 1.  
[Crafting Skill] Increased by 1.  
[Crafting Skill] Increased by 1.  
[Crafting Skill] Increased by 1.  
[Crafting Skill] Increased by 1.

"So it worked..." Xander was excited... "My plan worked" "WIS increased by 1".

Not only he acquired crafting skill but putting the instructional videos, books of different crafting skills in 1 DVD force leveled his skill. His WIS increased too... that was sweety goodness like Twinkies.

What happened Xander? Willow inquired. What did it do...

"You see wills clumping all the different crafting stuff in 1 DVD pretty much lumped it in one Major Crafting skills... and then it leveled the skill 5 times. Now we can use other DVD's to not only get new skills but also level it few times. I suspect we won't be able to level it up more than 5 or 10 times... But it'll still help"

"So I'll invite you in the party and then You should pull out Martial arts instructional DVDs and Use it to learn the skills".

Ding, **[Empty hand Martial arts] Skill Acquired**.  
[Empty hand Martial arts] Increased by 1.  
[Empty hand Martial arts] Increased by 1.  
[Empty hand Martial arts] Increased by 1.  
[Empty hand Martial arts] Increased by 1.  
[Empty hand Martial arts] Increased by 1.

Taking another DVD, Willow got another prompt. Would you like to learn "Weapons Mastery"?

Ding, **[Weapons Mastery] Skill Acquired.**  
[Weapons Mastery] Increased by 1.  
[Weapons Mastery] Increased by 1.  
[Weapons Mastery] Increased by 1.  
[Weapons Mastery] Increased by 1.  
[Weapons Mastery] Increased by 1.

Willow was almost jumping in excitement... "Wow, Xander I leveled up empty hand and weapons techniques 5 times". "Do you think using other DVD would level it up more?"

"Who knows, try it when you get home?" He said, "Give me Parkour Videos DVD wills". He took the DVD and Immediately absorbed it. With Parkour and weighted vests, now they could simultaneously grind DEX, STR, VIT.

**[Parkour Learned Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%]  
Monkey's got nothing compared to you. Jumping around, swinging around whether on ground or 10 floors high. You are the boss. Uneven terrain is your new best friend.**

**DEX +2.** "Willow before you start, get the Parkour skill DVD, it'll give +2 In DEX. Then start with Mana based techniques. Keep your status window open and when you are almost spent, you can practice Martial arts. It'll improve your VIT and DEX, if you practice it for some time. Right now, I am working on improving my STR/VIT/DEX with Parkour. I share these weights with you later."

For next half an hour they both practiced hard their skills waiting for Buffy to join them.

At 10:24 AM, Buffy came and was invited into "Illusion Barrier" by Xander.

"So what's the what" Buffy asked her friends who were sweating and working out. "Damn, you guys have been at it for a while, haven't you?"

Xander stopped and looked at her, "Buffy, I am planning to grind like mad man for next 2 days. And then when I am not in class... I plan on keeping up this mad grinding Until I am at least Level 50-60. I doubt I'll be able to find re-spawn point anywhere in real life. I have no desire to test it by dying. Most gamers in RPG often get bored with grinding sooner or later. Its most mind-numbing thing in RPG"

"So for my own sake and You guys, I am planning to grind, grind, grind and grind and grind".

She made a face and said "That sounds boring with Capital B, X".

"Don't worry, Buff, I am not planning to put you on this mad plan and I am myself not going to follow this plan like boring 9-5 job. I am a Gamer and with my abilities I can become very strong very fast. I am not planning to ditch you guys during patrol. Just like yesterday's patrolling netted both Willow and I enough experience to level up. And best of all, Think of the Loot, L O O T. Bling bling. Kicking asses and making money"

Buffy chuckled and shook her head at Xander's enthusiasm. Being a slayer meant Invitation to early grave. She had survived both Lothos and The Master by sheer luck and Xander's stubbornness in latter's case. She was really glad for her friends, who weren't scared away from darkness. Maybe, there is bright light in all of this.

She grinned and clapped her hands... "Ok Let's do this then".

\- 2 PM Lunch Break from Grinding -

Even though they were sitting and taking their lunch break. Both Willow and Xander had to eat many loaves of bread and drink milk to fill up their HP (It was 50 HP worth each). It was funny in a way from Buffy's point of view watching both of them tear into food.

Xander was also using Nine Yang Divine Skill to regenerate HP and MP. With the way his training was going, he hoped to be able to gain extra 8 levels for STR and VIT and hopefully for DEX too. He also hoped to increase his Nine Yang Divine Skill up 8 levels this week. Getting him closer to that first requirement of 20 Inner Energy for Cloud Ascending Ladder. That was one sweet skill.

"Hey Buff", Xander interjected her thought process, "Did you check your skills list so far?"

"Nope, I didn't. Do I have to say "Skills" to get that window? Oh well that also works" as Skills window opened up in front of her.

**[Skills Window]**

**Body Of Slayer** : As a Champion of Light, fighting against Faster, Stronger Dark Spawn, Slayer body has been enhanced mystically.  
+50 to STR, VIT, DEX. +5% HP Regen.

**Mind of Slayer** : Immunity to hypnotism, mind magic or thrall magic. It also makes slayer apathetic towards killing dark spawn.

**Physical Endurance :** Mystical empowerment also gives physical endurance. Not only slayer can take a hit or two but also lay down God's wrath longer. Slayer body also have higher rate of healing and recovery.

**Martial Arts Mastery :** Mystical package of Slayer also comes with Martial Ability. Fighting comes naturally to slayers. This innate ability also transfer to her empty hand fighting ability. Slayer are learning as they engage in fight.

**Weapons Mastery :** Slayer has shown to be able to wield any weapon known or unknown to man-kind.

**Speed Reading Lvl 3 :** User can now read at 500 WPM with comprehension of 20%.

"That's strange, Willow gave me couple of those martial arts instructional DVD. I don't see them in the list" Buffy asked...

"I think all those skills got packaged in Your Martial arts and Weapons mastery.."  
Xander wondered... "Do you remember the techniques and katas, buff?"

"Yeah, I was doing katas as you guys were grinding... I went through Karate, Taekwon-do, Wing Chun, 18 Fist of Shaolin, Eagle claw, Taiji, Bagua... some rare martial arts from Thailand and Indonesia."

"Before today I had no idea of any of this stuff... Giles only acts as beat up dummy. He has some sword skills though" She explained to her listeners.

Xander whistled at the list of martial arts... "You know slay-pal, we gotta do some sparring together. My Wudang Martial arts is Lvl 3. I need not only experience in using the techniques but also level it up."

He turned to Willow, "Hey Willow how much of martial arts instruction you have?"

Willow responded dryly, "About 1 TB or more... I had started downloading all those tutorials because you wanted to 'Kick some fangy butts' but then lost your interest in like day 2... Like how you lost interest in Learning Chinese or Japanese after you got into Japanese Anime Or Russian language when you wanted to watch late night Russian shows. Tell me Xander why would you need to know the language to watch R rated shows?".

'Ha ha ha... The storyline sounded promising" embarrassed as he joked.

"Anyways, let's get some sparring in and then get back to grinding..." He said while looking into his pocket notebook... "Then around 7 we can dungeon crawl and kill few zombies and gain experience. If I am right, then we should be able to jump 3-4 levels today".

"Really?" Buffy was surprised about this and asked... "How can you level up so fast?"

It was now Willow's turn to explain, "Buffy, in RPG video games, you can level up very fast initially... The way we are grinding, If we had few days off... we'd easily reach mid 20 levels. Both Xander and I are level 4 right now... As long as we are defeating anything that's around our level, we can easily keep leveling. Right now our main drawback is our low Health and Mana points."

"Willow is right" Xander said, "Low HP/MP means that we have to take frequent breaks to re-charge ourselves. As a Gamer, we have to Level up not only ourselves but also our skills. Right now we can do quests, grinding and monster hunting as way to increase our skills and personal levels. This is why we have you with us... You'll help us out initially when we are in pinch... whether because of fatigue or any monster beyond our level. When we reach close to your levels, we'll include you in party and that will help you level up quite faster."

"[Observe]... Hm... right now you are 31... and I bet you will be able to level upto 50 easily with us in matter of few weeks.", Xander said to her.

That sounded good to her... Higher level meant her chances of survival rises. Now that was quite the depressing thought. Shaking her head trying to get away from it. From her status, she'd need to increase her INT and WIS... With Level bonus points, she'll be able to do that quite easily. That would mean better results in school and college. Being intelligent and wise never hurt anyone.

She got up and started getting ready for spar with Xander. She pushed her hands and feet out in Wing Chun ready stance.

"Hey, who do you think you are, IP man?", Xander retorted looking at her stance.

"Ready whenever you are, Xan", she smirked...

"That's Xan-man to you, Buff", he retorted at her and then lunged at her with a basic fist strike. Buffy dodged and parried while attacking at him.

"OWWw... holy fuck"... stop.. stop" [Status]...

"I lost 50 HP by that strike Buff. That's 25% of my HP." Xander cried in pain...

"Holy mother of... if I didn't had [Gamers Body], I bet I would have broken few ribs...damn...Owww" He yelped and then turned to her and said "You know little more to the left and about a feet down... Yes, that's the place to rub", he teased as worried Buffy was checking him over...

She rolled her eyes and slapped him behind his head "If you can joke about it, I don't have worry and fuss over you".

"He he he... Buffy don't worry, I have Gamer's body... any damage that I take carries over to my Health points reduction... It hurts like mother fuck … owww... for a while" as Buffy slapped his head again for cursing...

**Ding, [Physical Endurance] skill has been created.**

"Huh. Physical endurance skill has been created. It reduces incoming damage by 3 percent at level 1", Xander whined..."Dammit, another thing to grind at... and it's going to be a bitch to grind. Oww.. what the hell Buffy"...

She smirked as Willow laughed lightly at them, "Well you need physical damage to grind that skill... and you were asking for it."

He glared at the girls for a while and then said, "Let's try again... I can take another punch like this... and then use Nine Yang Divine skill to heal myself and then We'll go back to sparring and grinding."  
Xander soothed Buffy's concerned about getting hurt. He was touched with her concern... for all of her faults Buffy was loyal friend... She had pretty much ditched Cordelia and cordettes for Willow and him.

For next few hours, You could hear Xander's pained cries as he got hit by Buffy again and again and then used Divine Skill to heal himself and then got up to take more punishment. You'd have to give him credit for taking such punishment. That too from a girl half his size.

"May be he's a closeted masochist", Buffy bemusedly thought about him. "That will be funny combination with our shy-mousy Willow."

By the end of their grinding, He was able to grind his **[Physical Endurance]** to Level 8... **[Nine Yang Divine]** Skill to Level 7 and **[Wudang Martial arts]** to Level 10. It was very productive day for Xander and Willow. Buffy had fun... Her inner slayer did have some sadistic tendency. Well, At least, that's what Xander thought and believed.

They then planned to later meet up at community park around 7 to do some dungeon crawling.

\- Zombie Dungeon -

"Man, why the droopy face dude?" Xander quipped as he struck the Level 4 zombie's skull hard killing him.

"[Spinning Mana Arrow]" cried Willow and she killed another zombie... Damn she was kicking better ass than him. Buffy wasn't involved as they didn't wanted her to involve right now... It'd net her nothing in any way. So she was patiently walking along and commenting.

"Say Xander, why aren't you using that inner energy stuff" Willow inquired

"Oh I can't use that inner energy based techniques. Only time I can feel inner energy when I meditate using the skill... but right now... nope nothing. I think it'll take some time to be able to go from meditating with inner energy and using it in martial skill", Xander said and explained... "Though I was able to use mana to increase damage by every strike... Gave me [Blunt Weapon Mastery] as a skill"

"Man it's boring watching you two beat them up.." Buffy whined for umpteenth time for the day.

"Dammit Buffy, this is the first dungeon so far" Xander glared as she pouted. Of course his willpower crumbled immediately under that cute pout that Buffy knew how to use expertly. "Ah Well then, we should start killing them asap and level up... So you can join us, ok?"

Having said that, Xander equipped the sword which he had pilfered from Giles collection and started using Wudang sword skills to hack and kill zombies... If he had stayed for a while, he'd have seen smirking Buffy and exasperated Willow.

Wudang sword system was based on swift movement with using less power to get better results. Wudang monks or not, swords skills are meant to incapacitate or kill your opponents. Even without using any inner energy he was simply weaving in and out slashing, hacking zombie bits all over the place... if the girls weren't busy themselves they would have some comments for him.

From his initial guess there must have been 80-100 zombie in this huge community park. As they were killing they were leveling up... He had killed 5 Zombies to gain another level then 7 zombies to gain another and and then 9...

He had killed 25 zombies so far and gained 3 extra levels... then suddenly He was startled by Massive cry that reverberated through the illusion barrier.

They watched as all the zombies started vanishing and turning into massive... really MASSIVE zombie monster.

**[Observe] - Zombie Legion. Lvl 24...**

He immediately shouted over to Buffy and Willow, "Buffy, Wills its Level 24..." Then He threw his sword to Buffy, "Take this sword, it will serve you better than me... Wills Use [Spinning Mana Arrow] and hit its legs. Distract him. Buffy One swift move cut his legs or even single leg will do. No need to take risk. You are at far higher level"

[Spinning Mana Arrow]  
[Spinning Mana Arrow], both Willow and Xander shouted and threw their attacks on the Legion Zombie.. While it was distracted, Buffy moved faster than ever and Swung her sword to cut down Zombie's leg. It was strong attack and did as expected. Her STR/VIT/DEX were in 60's range... So it was expected when Zombie Legion fell to the floor.

[Spinning Mana Arrow]  
[Spinning Mana Arrow]

"Dammit, My skill is not high enough to get a critical hit... We'll be out of HP and MP way before his HP drop..." frustrated Xander said to those two.

"Xander, I think I can do something" Willow turned to him and said "You need to keep it distracted for a while."

"I can do that... Buffy Cut off his arm. Worst case scenario, we'll have you to help us Kill this thing", Xander said as he struck zombie with another [Spinning Mana Arrow] technique.

While both of them were distracting the Legion Zombie, Willow took a deep breath and started charging a whole lot of mana in her hand. She was shaping the mana into sphere... and then the huge ball of mana started spinning..

"No that's not enough. Add more mana, Hold it and If I can make it turn into Rasengan then it's damage potential will increase many times over" Willow told herself... as she was putting more and more focus and attention to create multiple spins in mana ball...

**[Ding, You've created a new technique. What would you like to name it?]**  
"Rasengan".  
**New Technique [Rasengan] Created.**

Again she took a deep breath and focused on the Legion zombie and moved towards him and threw that attack.

The moment the attack struck, it shook up whole dungeon barrier. It was powerful attack as one could see. Buffy and Xander were watching it with their mouths hung open... It obliterated the zombie into fine dust.

"Holy Fuck!", "Dammit what the hell?" Xander and Buffy cried and jumped back in surprise.

**[Your Level has increased by 1.]** A window opened up in front of Willow, suddenly surprising her and falling her onto her butt...

**[Your Level has increased by 1.]**, Sudden window brought Xander focus into present and he ran towards Willow. "Willow what the hell was that? You know what... on second thought, I don't care, that was awesome".. He said and Hi-fived her. He grinned and exclaimed, "Man we were able to beat Level 24 Zombie..."

"With my help", Buffy interjected playfully. "that was one scary attack Willow" she turned towards Willow and told her.

"Yes, it took almost all of my mana" Willow told them... "It was hard to focus and concentrate and charge that attack."

Willow called her Status window and said, "[Status], it seems we leveled up 4 times in short time... though we are still level 8... and it was easy so far... and...guys...? " Willow looked at her friends who were wearing stupefied expression watching something little to the side of her... "What's happening guys?"

She turned and her jaw dropped... There... it was sitting right there in front of them... Legion zombie dropped a loot... well it was more than just a loot.

The loot contained dollar bills, a book and something that looked like potions... "Xander, are those what I think it is?" whispered Willow... even though it was a whisper, it carried far enough for Xander to startle and comment.

"Yeah I think... **[Observe]**... Yes its a Health restoring potions... Medium Level... Heals about 200 HP... Holy... that is almost like... finding Holy fucking grail", Xander gaped as he read the stats on Healing Potions.

They ran over to the loot and picked it up. "Guys We have 10 recovery potions. Hmm,, How about You and Buffy get 4 of them to Keep and I'll keep 3 of them."

He picked the money, "This is about 500 dollars, Buffy will keep 200 and Both of us will 150 dollars."

Willow had picked the book and it was titled "Life drain Skill book" And She dropped it... "ekkkk" Both Xander and Buffy turned and looked at her...

"What would Giles say if he found out you are throwing the books around?" Xander teased Willow... as he bent over to pick up the book...

"**[Life Drain skill book]**. It transfer's target's life force to the user... Advanced level you can re-direct the transfer to someone else. Nice..." Xander was happy about that...

"What the..?" Shrieked Buffy... "Isn't that dangerous?... Draining another's life force... that's like... like dark magic"..

"Sheesh Buffy. No need to burst our ear-drums... but no... Life is like Ki... which can be recovered by food, rest and exercise. So we can use it to improve someone's health or heal... Of course there is a chance most people will use it as weapon and become dark wizards." Xander told them. "In that case, I have you two to depend on, to keep me on right path."

"Arghh... dammit, You are always giving me headache, Xander. I don't have glasses like Giles which I can rub to relieve this tension..." Buffy moaned in frustration.

"Well, you can always rub something else". quipped Xander... realizing that he spoke without his filters on.

"I am going to get hit... Aren't I?" He asked her piteously.

"Offphh"... "Yup, Now tomorrow you are sparring with me for whole day" Buffy said with a blush... Who knew if that light red blush was from anger or embarrassment.

Xander was on ground and crying, moaning about his foot in mouth disease. "Damn I can't even buy back that habit... There is no info on my status page about 'foot in mouth' status... There should be, God dammit." thought Xander as he laid there on the ground.

With a Sigh, he got up, "Well, anyways. Buffy, Willow... We now have more Zombies and Legion Zombies to kill... rest up for few minutes and then Willow will teach me the new technique." He pulled out couple of warm Pizzas and Cola from his inventory. "Its time to eat up guys"

They sat on the nearby bench and ate their fill, as girls chatted about god knows what else... and Xander... He was thinking furiously about how many levels Legion zombie killing will net up... From what he could see. Getting into 20's is going to be pretty easy.

"I should level up my [Instant Dungeon] skill as much as possible. If I have more options than Zombies, Ghosts, Mix and Empty... it'll make our lives easier. Now how to convince girls to follow the plan"

It wasn't easy... But he was able to make them follow this Legion zombie killing plan... They spent next hour and half doing exactly that. Killing Low level zombies was helping gain some experience. With Legion Zombie. Both Willow and Xander taking their shots in. They were able to Level up 4 more times.

They ended up their day at Level 12. At his suggestion, Willow ended up putting all of her bonus points in INT and WIS. They got total of 60 health potions. 3000 dollars in cash. and Couple of new skill books.  
1\. Life Drain  
2\. How to Raise a Zombie.

They immediately absorbed the skill books. Except on raising zombies. and They found out that Buffy could not. They have no idea why that was...Though he made a note to find out the reason why? So he ended up storing the books in his inventory.

Overall it was good dungeon crawling for them.

Next Day -

Xander's plan more or less went as he expected. Besides getting his ass kicked on Sunday by Buffy in sparring. He had started that day with Level 13. He and Willow needed to get another 7 levels to reach the Lvl 20 Mark.

After the training and 3 hour patrol looking for vampires and dusting them off... Both Willow and Xander were able to dust a few vampires off... Of course they kept the basic strategy of surprising the opponents by Mana Bind and then by "Spinning Mana arrow".

This was enough for momentarily stun your opponent and put some pain on them. Level of vampires were all over the place. Ranging from 20 – 40. It seemed to him, that these vamps were also getting some sort of mystical buff to make them 3-4 times stronger than humans. It didn't matter with slayer though. Even at high level Vamps, Buffy was able to bring world of hurt on them. It was mostly because of High modifiers she has on STR/VIT/DEX.

Dusting Vampires were also good way to Level up. They were getting massive experience. Mostly because it was easy to get critical hit on Lvl 20 Vamps if you take them by surprise. With the way Buffy was going through Vamps, She'd soon jump up another level.

There was one change they made today's training. They added sparring practice for Willow... Both Xander and Willow sparred as much as possible utilizing martial skills they both learned. It also gave Willow Physical Endurance Skill. If they Level up this skill high enough... Both of them would be able to shrug off majority of physical attacks without losing any HP.

At the end of the day, They started to see results of their grind. Willow was able to reach Level 19 and He touched the glorious 20. Again most of the Major stats STR/VIT/DEX they worked on during the day... Plus as many mana based skills.

This is where Willow shined. Mostly due to her having High INT and WIS. Her Spinning arrow was becoming deadlier by the minute.

Only change from yesterday was their testing of [Ghost Instant Dungeon]. It was quiet creepy. He could activate this dungeon during the day. You needed mana based attack to defeat these ghosts, and when 'Master Ghost" Lvl 22 arrived. Buffy was useless and completely creeped out without any Mana based attacks.

Still, they were able to kill that thing with Willow's big damn **[Rasengan]** attack... It was another one shot... It was pity, he couldn't learn that attack because of high INT requirements. All he could do was make mana ball spin in one direction. It was powerful attack with 600% attack damage. But Willow's monster attack, damn that thing had 900% more damage potential. They got another skillbook as loot by Killing "Master Ghost". This book was about Scrying. Basically You could snoop into places like a ghost from distance.

Sounded decent ability, but any monkey could buy pre-made runic script in local magical shops to cancel basic scrying ability. So they had another technique that had potential... but only at High enough level.

**Total Money gained today :** 5,350 ($500 Per Legion Zombie + $350 Per Master Ghost)  
**Skill books :** "How to Scry and Snoop on your Opponents or ladies", How to Raise Zombies", "Life Drain".  
**Potions :** 100 Health Potions (heals 200 HP) + Ghost Potion (Forcing Out of body experience, One Vial for 30 minutes).

In the End, they divided $5000 by giving Buffy $2000 and both Xander and Willow Kept $1500. Xander stored all of the potions and skill books in his inventory where it'll be safer.

Willow ended up putting majority of her points once again in INT and WIS and 10 points in LUK. They have no idea if going to bed or breaking up to go home won't actually break the party automatically... They didn't want to lose these points or having them adjusted automatically by Gamer System.

Willow also learned Scrying as she was their resident Mage. They knew if they farm Ghost Dungeon, They'll have more of these skills books, so he was not worried about not getting his hands on this sweet skill... After all what teenager male would want to miss his chance on snooping on pretty ladies without getting caught.

SO far, he was keeping his points in reserve... With 95 points, he could easily become close combat expert by putting 30+ points in STR/VIT/DEX. Or He could go same route as Willow and become a mage... Right now he was being a bit greedy. He wanted both routes available to him. The idea of doing magic was, well, quite exciting.

It was pity that money was only thing, they could compensate Buffy right now... But Sooner they'll be able to shrink the gap between themselves and her to less than 10 Level and then Buffy too would be able to utilize his Gamer magic to improve her stats.

All in all, He was happy and satisfied by his progress. Switching his lights off, Xander went to meditate to practice "Nine Yang Divine Skill" for the night. If he needs to help Buffy, he need to master inner energy skills.

D1 = Day 1 of Grind.  
D2 = Day 2 of Grind.

**Name : AleXander 'Xander' Harris **  
**Job :** The Gamer  
**Title :** Zeppo  
**Level :**20 Next Lvl (73.0%)

**HP:** 1000  
**Mana:** 1014 (750 + (10 X INT))

**STR:** 6 + 7(D1) + 5 (D2) = 18 + 5 (1) + 1.8 (10) + 1.8 (11) = 26.6  
**VIT:** 8 + 6 (D1)+ 5 (D2)= 19 + 5 (1) + 5 (3) + 1.9 (10) + 1.9 (11) = 34.8  
**DEX:**10 + 4(D1) + 3 (D2)= 17 + 5 (1) + 2.4 (10) + 2.4 (11)+ 2 = 28.8  
**INT:** 28 + 5(1) + 5(3) + 2.8 (10) + 2.8 (11) -20 (Slacker) = 26.4  
**WIS:** 23 + 2.3 (10) + 2.3 (11) - 10 (WIS) = 17.6  
**LUK:** 7

**Points:** 95  
**Money:** $150 + $1000 + $1500

**STATUS:** Well Known Slacker (-20 INT, -10 WIS), Zeppo (-10 WIS in social situations).

**New Skills Learned:**  
Life Drain  
Blunt Weapons Mastery (LvL 5).  
Physical Endurance (Lvl 15)  
Crafting (LvL 5)  
Cooking (Lvl 5)

**Name : Willow Rosenberg**  
**Job :** Research Gal  
**Title :** Nerd  
**Level :** 19 Next Lvl (92.0%)

**HP:** 950  
**Mana:** 1630 (700 + 10 X INT)

**MP Recovery/Min -** 1% of Total Mana Points.  
**HP Recovery/Min -** 5 HP.

**STR:** 4 + 5 + 6 = 17  
**VIT:** 7 + 5 + 5 = 19  
**DEX:** 7 + 5 + 4 + 2 = 20  
**INT:** 58 + 20 + 15 = 93  
**WIS:** 10 + 20 + 10 = 40  
**LUK:** 12 + 10

**Points:** 0 (Spent on Increasing INT and WIS  
**Money:** $1000 + $1500

**STATUS:** Nerd (-20 % gain in popular crowd), Research Gal (+20% reduction in times during Research).

**New Skills Learned:**  
Life Drain (Lvl 1)  
How to Scry and Scoop on your opponents and Ladies (Lvl 1)  
Rasengan (LvL 3)  
Instant Dungeon "Ghost" (Lvl 1)  
Weapons Mastery (LvL 4).  
Empty Hand Martial arts (LvL 5)  
Physical Endurance (LvL 8)  
Crafting (LvL 5)  
Cooking (LvL 5)

**NOTE: For Mana Points calcuation. User gets 25 Pts per level for Level 1 - Level 10, Then 50 Pts per Lvl. That's 750 Pts + 10 X Int.  
Willow got + 2 STR, VIT, DEX with Martial arts Instructional (both Weapons and Empty Hand)  
**

**You can see the break up of stats with 2 days of grind. You can see the result of extra effort Xander put both days...  
I was calculating the buffs provided to Xander by inner energy techniques. As I am computing how much it should effect his overall skills... If you have any ideas on that part... don't mind sharing it with me.**

**From now on, I'll be putting up stats in Base + (Buff) format to make it easy read.**

**In the Original Web Comic, Even though Han Jee-han was introduced to magical world by falling into the battle between Shades (black Summoner) and Red head Hottie. He spent couple of weeks twiddling thumbs doing nothing. Any respectable gamer would have started grinding their asses off.  
And when he started training... Even with High INT, he was doing piss poor planning. Of course, no creativity on his part too.**


	3. Origin

Day 4: Nov 4, Monday

"Where is he?", Buffy and Willow were worried as they looked at the Xander's empty seat in the classroom. For some reason Xander didn't come to the school. Slacker he may have been, but he never ditched school, opting to be with his friends.

Buffy knew he had reached home safely after yesterday night's patrol. She had pretty much left him at his doorstep. That was her routine daily after patrolling, making sure both Xander and Willow reached their homes safely.

Buffy looked at Willow and asked, "So Willow, do you know anything about why Xander is ditching the school today?"

"No I don't. I bet he's grinding his skills and forgot the time."

"Argh, at least he should have called or sent a message. Dammit, I am going to kick his ass extra hard today for making me worry."

Willow chuckled at her frustration. "You know, I am quite surprised to see Xander so motivated about doing something and taking initiative like this."

Buffy snorted, "Oh please, he tend to fall face first into trouble."

* * *

After School ^^^

"Hey Buffy, Are you going to check out Xander's place?" Willow asked her.

"Let's first try calling him and then we'll check his place out." Buffy said, as she checked her cell for messages, "Oh, I just got a message from him, he wants us to meet at grounds same place as yesterday."

"Let's go," Buffy cracked her knuckles, "He urgently needs to learn a lesson."

Ten minutes later they found him sitting on a bench with a pissed look on his face.

"Hey guys" He looked up and greeted them.

Buffy said, "Wow, why do you look constipated, Xander?"

"Damn it, Buffy, I am pissed, not constipated." He growled a little. "Anyways, You know yesterday, I decided to Level up my Nine Yang Skill. You know, Reach Level 20 and then jump Fifty feet high".

Willow exclaimed, "Oh yeah, At level 20, You'll be able to Learn and Use Wudang's Cloud Ascending Ladder. That's a Light-body skill for fast movement. What happened?"

Xander nodded, "Yeah, I was able to reach Level 20 couple of hours ago. It turns out, I couldn't learn Cloud Ascending Ladder... Because for it to activate I need to have Inner Energy at Level 20. Right now that is at only 10."

"So your inner energy stats are calculated differently? Nine Yang Skill is a powerful neigong skill. In the story, Wuji was able to master it in 5 years."

Xander nodded and groaned at the thought of it, "Yeah, It turns out that I have to Level up all the nei-gong Skills. That means Nine Yin Neigong too."

Buffy interjected suddenly, "Isn't Yin female or feminine energy? Should you be learning this? You know, I am all for a guy to get in touch with their inner feminine, but..."

"No Buffy," Willow corrected her. "Yin is softer energy. There is no Yin without Yang and no Yang without Yin. Taiji classics says "At the greatest Yang, Yin's potential is greatest and at Maximum Yin, Yang's potential is greatest."

Xander agreed and took it from here, "Yes, In the novel and series, Wuji needed to learn Yang to drive Yin-based poison from his body to heal. In the 2nd story, Yang Guo learned Some Nine Yin Skill and Leveled up a few times..."

"In the Nine Yang Manual, Yin Energy flow is used. But it still basically trains and builds Yang-based energy flow. If I add Nine Yin Skill to this, my ability to store and use energy will rise exponentially."

"Moreover, I tested this by practicing Nine Yin Skill and Leveled it up 2 times. That is being recognized by [Inner Energy] and its now at Level 11."

Xander said, as he was looking at his skills list and flipping through them. From His practice, he knew Practicing Nine Yin Skill was going to be little difficult. Because You needed a cool temperature to practice it. Almost chilling temperature, in fact the colder the better. He was wondering where he could go to practice like that.

Because during his practice he was getting prompted about that. He looked up at Buffy and Willow and said "I need to do Nine Yang During the day, Nine Yin During the Night or In Low temperature, preferably around 0 Degrees. That's not the issue for now. I can easily do it for some time as both skills are at low level. But after level 40+, you know I would have to spend all day long just to level up 1 point. And all night to level up 1 point for Nine Yin."

"How the hell I am going to keep practicing," he wondered aloud.

Buffy rolled her eyes, "You know you should focus on getting your stats high up for now. It'll take few days to reach Level 40. So you have some time to think about it."

"You're right, no need to worry about it."

Willow, who was silent so far... jumped up and said... "You know Xander, you can practice in below 0 temperatures if you want. All you need to do, go to local butcher's shop and then create Instant dungeon. Butcher's shops often have freezers below 0. If you can't do that then you can think of a place with AC... and Use the same tactic."

Xander jumped up and hugged her, 'That's great idea Wills, I hadn't even thought of it. I should test it out today after Herr Snyder leaves school, I can use his office to test the idea."

"Oh I have good news for both of you... You know as I was going through the skill list, I noticed I had leveled up [Instant Dungeon], it's now at 17."

Willow looked excited about this, Buffy also had this gleam in her eyes as she listened or rather understood what this news implied.

"So what's the change, Xander?" Buffy asked eagerly.

"Ok Give me your ears girls and I'll tell you my dungeon list:  
"1. Empty Dungeon.  
"2. Zombie Dungeon.  
"3. Ghost Dungeon.  
"4. Combined of Zombie and Ghost.  
"5. Angry Ogre.  
"6. Assorted Combined of all the above.  
"Ok Last is very special... In fact Your eyes will pop. Ready?"

"7th is Time Warping Dungeon. Time Ratio 5:1... In the dungeon We'll have 5 hours for 1 hour outside world."

"Now we have our own Hyperbolic Time Chamber. I am planning to see if I can increase this ratio more or if it's fixed by default. Now we have extra time to do whatever we want."

It was fascinating to see both of their eyes light up at this news. Especially Willow, whose prodigious mind was already working through the possibilities... and with the look Willow was giving him now, he knew he'll be working for her like an unpaid slave for life.

(Oh, if he knew how prophetic that statement would turn out to be).  
Jokes aside, frankly this did open more than a few options for them. Especially he'd have more than enough time to level up his Inner-Energy.

"That's nice, Xander," Buffy interrupted what looked like starting of "the" infamous scooby dance. "Can you invite me in the party? I need to check few things."

"Sure, Invite Buffy, Invite Willow. Inviting daily is a pain the ass." Xander complained and then looked at Buffy who was looking through her bag and squealed.

He finally asked, "What are you doing?"

"YES... I was thinking about this ability to learn. So I brought couple of French Books and a Dictionary. It worked. Now I know French. Absorbing the dictionary, even if I remember 10%, I'd add 2500 words to my vocabulary. That's almost like their middle school students. Even at 1%, it's better than my current Vocabulary." She said and then immediately added, "Looks like I got an increase in WIS. And here is more info on Language skills."

**[Budding Linguist Lvl 5, Exp: 33.33%]  
[Budding Linguist Lvl 5, Exp: 33.33%]  
Vocabulary is the corner stone of any language. The more you read, listen, communicate and expose yourself the language, better you'll get.  
Every 3 Levels of INT will Level this skill by 1 Level.  
INT (Lvl 16) = 16% Vocab.**

Both Xander and Willow looked at her like she grew two heads or something. Then Xander turned to Willow... "Wills, Please tell me you downloaded memorizing tutorials or something. If we level up our memorizing ability, Absorbing dictionaries would pretty much make us experts in languages."  
**Ding, WIS increased by 1.**

"My WIS increased... again... So this tactic works..." Xander said and then looked at Willow curiously.

Willow rolled her eyes, "Yes I was able to download few different authors on memorizing. Almost every technique is based on mnemonics. Most of what I found offered were pretty much party tricks like memorizing lost list of objects or memorizing names or phone numbers etc... They are not gimmicks per se... but very in-efficient way of memorizing things."

"Then through the research I found a guy selling a three month course with 90 lessons... You are supposed to do 1 lesson a day... He believes in intensive practice. So you are doing tons of practice on five basic mnemonic techniques."

Xander looked at her impatiently, "so what... how does it help?"

She sighed... "Because 5 basic techniques are the same from other authors... But what's interesting is his ability to create mental databases something like computer databases where you can store massive data. I went through couple of lessons in the last 2 days... and they WORK far better and far more efficiently than any other author out there. So here's the DVD with the information." She said as she handed DVD to both of them, she was also surprised to see another prompt window.

**Making an informative decision raises your WIS by 1.**

Xander and Buffy both absorbed the Memorizing DVD. Which helped them gain another point in INT and raised and leveled Memorizing skill by 5.

**[Memory Bank Lvl-Max]  
A properly formed database will help you improve your memory and comprehension. Sharp memory increases your intelligence and Wisdom.  
WIS +5, INT+10%.**

Xander whistled and then complimented her, "That's sweet deal, Willow. I can see how the memorizing thing works. You were right, his technique is far better than anyone elses. You've also included mind-mapping, note taking, improving concentration... All in all it was good collection. This will help our grades tremendously."

Buffy snorted, "Like you care about grades. But that's true... That was very helpful, thanks Wills."  
Willow blushed at the praise and stammered, "Ah... We should check out Principal's office and see if Xander can practice." 

* * *

As they started walking towards the Principal's office to continue Nine Yin Practice. He was thinking about how much he had to re-work his training.

"According to what I know, Nine Yin should be trained during the night when our body's natural flow is also Yin. Nine Yang should be trained during the day. Low temperature also helps with training. Most of the Masters in that universe cared nothing about temperature..."

"12 Midnight, Yin flow is max. So it's easy to do during that time. During the day, however I am in school. 12 noon I am in class, lunch break is at 11AM. So that will have to do."

It was Buffy who interrupted his thought process. "What's up Xander? What you thinking?"

"Nothing, I was mentally reworking my training schedule. When it comes to Yin and Yang, there are 2 perfect times. 12 noon for Yang Flow, and 12 at night for Yin Flow. The idea is to include these times in your daily practice."

"So I'll be using Time dilated dungeon and practice during the lunch break, break lasts 40 minutes... ditching classes daily would be killer for me. If I was a jock, Snyder would have no issues but...", he trailed off... "ah, forget it, it's not that important, as a martial artist, I should be practicing as much as possible."

"Anyways, Willow I was thinking about farming dungeons. We can get tons of experience points and practice our skills. If we keep fighting against higher level opponent like Legion Zombies we'll raise our stats pretty fast."

Willow agreed, "Yeah, thats true... So what's bugging you about this?"

"You, Willow." He said to her, "You are our mage, and a mage's weakness universally is low physical abilities. Even now for a level 19 you have low STR, DEX, VIT. As far as I know you are planning to put all of your gained points from leveling up in INT and WIS... and maybe LUK, right?"

"Yeah, that's true. So you want me to physically train those stats." Willow said as she understood his point. It made quite a bit of sense to her.

Fighting against high level opponents will help them raise their levels fast. They gained most of their points on killing Legion Zombies... Even at their low level, killing level 4-6 zombies didn't give them many experience points.

"Yes, I want you to level up your base stats as much as possible by training. I know you are not the most physical of us. But high stats aren't going to hurt you, specially when we have access to a Hyperbolic Time Chamber." He grinned at her in a way that made her heart flutter.

"Regardless, our initial plan is to raise our stats as much as possible with training, then we'll ask Giles for help on magic bit. If he could provide her few spell books then Willow should be able to level it up nice and high... ah... We'll need a Healer too...Even though I have access to knowledge from healing manual, I can't do anything about it unless my Inner-Energy is high enough. Besides, some acupressure and acupuncture will be good."

Buffy interrupted his monologue, "Speaking of Giles, When are you planning to tell him?"  
"How about we do it today?"

Now they were almost in front of Principal's office. Xander created a time-dilated Illusion Barrier and entered into the office. He cleared the Principal's table while Willow started lowering the AC's temperature.

Xander turned toward them and said, "You two can go outside and train if you want, rather than freezing in here with me..."

"Well I was curious, about the techniques..." Buffy said and Willow agreed with her.

Xander rolled his eyes, and sat on the table crossed legs as he activated Nine Yin Skill. Buffy with her supernatural sense could immediately detect the difference in environment. Suddenly Xander's hand started going through complex circular motions.

"According to the novels, These arts not only teach and train how to gather Energy in Dan-tien or the lower abdomen but also how to regulate it, circulate it through your body to achieve supernatural feats." Willow explained as she noticed Buffy watching the practice.

"Let's get out, These techniques requires intense concentration during practice otherwise he might hurt himself." She said as she pulled Buffy out of the office.

Buffy was surprised by this information "What do you mean hurt himself?"

"You need to understand, he's manipulating his energy flow in the body. Unless you are a master, you need intense focus. I know you are not that stupid, Buffy." Willow gave her a look that made her feel an inch tall. "It's good that he can create these Instant Dungeons. He can practice without any fear of interruption."

Buffy hmm'ed... "Do you think he can teach it to me? My dad used to watch these Chinese martial arts series. So I have some idea about it."

"No I asked him already. He was interested in teaching it even if he had to write the instructions by hand, that's why he asked me to look for any instructional manual on drawing/sketching."  
"So what happened?"

"Turns out he can't. He knows the techniques... Actually his body knows it and he can instinctively follow the proper process. I even gave him some teaching instructions. Even they didn't help him put it in something he could explain. To him, it's like telling a blind person what color blue is. So the only way we'd get something if we get lucky in loot drops."

Buffy pouted, "That sucks. So, what do you think will happen when Giles hear about this?"

Willow grinned, "Yeah, it'd be funny to see his reaction." 

* * *

5 hours later ^^^

Xander came out of the office looking pleased. He was able to raise his Nine Yin Skill by 3 points. He was planning to spend as much during the night to raise it to reach 20. He wanted that [Cloud Ascending Ladder] skill.

He had far too many skills that needed to be leveled up. His crafting skill was still at 5... No he shouldn't think like this. There is not much issue of money... Willow and Giles had the Intelligence and Research thing covered, Buffy was their damage dealer. They even had a stalker in form of deadboy. Before Halloween, he was just a joker with donuts. Now he can make a difference in not only his life but his friends.

He found his friends who were sparring lightly. Yes, He was glad Willow was serious about getting stronger. Even if she's a mage, it'll be safer for her.

He interrupted their sparring and grinned at them, "Hey guys, practicing martial arts... good for you wills."

He asked them, "Ready to go home?"

Buffy asked "What about talking to Giles?"

"Man, I am tired right now. How about we talk to him tomorrow?".

She agreed for now. He looked quite tired but felt strong to her senses. Maybe because he was practicing in low temperature. Yes, he was stronger before the practice. So she could tell this energy thingie works. 

* * *

Next Day In the library ^^^

They were all sitting in the library like good and obedient children. That immediately started ringing warning bells in his head. God save him from American children. Ah, well, he should prepare his favorite English blend... Anything that can stave off headache for an extra hour or two should suffice.

He looked at the children again.  
Maybe it'd be better if he had something stronger... that too of alcoholic persuasion. He took off his glasses in preparation of what's coming next, as he sat down on his chair.

"So, anything you need to tell me?"

Xander grinned looking impressed, "Wow, he already got used to us... Wills, we've become too predictable lately, if Giles of all people can read us."

Buffy snorted and then mock glared at him.

"Alright, ok, ok. Giles We have something to tell you... Well, its nothing to be concerned about, at least I think so... I told the girls to keep mum on this until we understand the whole situation better. Damn, I have no idea how to explain to you about this?"

Giles sat up and looked seriously in Xander's eyes. He knew the teens in front of him were loyal to each other. So it made some kind of sense for them to hide stuff from him... Plus the age gap between them prevented from him bonding to their group.

"How about from the beginning and I'll be the judge if its to be concerned about it or not?"

"It started on the Halloween, the army fatigues I was going to wear that day were ruined, so I came up with sort of idea... I created a completely new character with some decent powers."

"Good lord, are you telling me you kept some of the powers from Halloween?"

"Yes, It's hard to describe... hmm... How about I show you first? Create [Instant Dungeon]."

Giles was sharp enough to notice the difference in the environment. You don't become a field watcher without good perception.

"This is an Illusion Barrier... How did you do that? No rather how could you do that?"

"This is part of my powers... You see I think I went through one of your books when I was bored and notice the basic description of it... so I ended up adding it on my character."

"Good Lord, So you can make illusion barriers. That was almost effortless "

"No, it's far more than that... I had very simple powers. Simple in terms to describe but how it works is little complicated."

Giles suddenly snapped at him "Xander, stop beating around the bush... Tell me exactly what you can do."

Xander was startled by this sudden show of fierceness in Giles. He gulped at intensity Giles was radiating.

"You see, I have powers of a video game character."

Giles gritted his teeth, "Which game?"

"I have powers of a video game character."

"and I am asking which game, Xander?"

The girls were quite amused by watching this back and forth. Xander did have one bad habit. If he thought something was amusing to him, he'd draw it out and squeeze every drop out of it. You know something about making lemonade out of lemons? Well his analogies rarely made sense to Buffy. Willow would just nod along anything Xander was saying.

"Giles I am telling you, I have the powers of vdeo game character... and yes I'll stop teasing you... what I mean to say... my character could behave like a video game character in the real world. I chose to create a character based on Role Playing Video Games. Where characters can learn, get experience, money and rewards from doing quests, fights or training and get stronger based on what skills I improve."

"I am afraid to say Xander, it's still not giving me good idea."

Willow interrupted, "Think of it like this Giles, Xander is a video game character and the world around him behaves like a video game which has some pre-determined rules. For example, In video games, you can create a party with other people and in party they share resources and experience of going through the quest."

"Now, Xander can do that with us... for example, when I joined Xander, I was a level 3, 2nd Year High School student. Now I am Level 19, Apprentice Undead Hunter. Its like a video game, I am getting stronger just being in a party with Xander".

Giles had a hard time coming to terms with what he was hearing... you could see his emotions on the face shift from confused to surprised understanding and then shock.

"Good Lord."  
Xander smirked and looked at him.  
"Good Lord."  
"Careful Giles... your vocabulary is slipping."  
"Right... well... I mean... Good Lord."

He sat back down and looked at the 3 kids in front of him. What they had shared him... that was amazing and scary. He still didn't understand the game mechanics but got the basic gist of it. His thoughts were interrupted by Xander once again.

"What I don't understand is why I've kept these powers? Everyone who was touched by Halloween spell changed back with some or no memory of it. By the next day most of them had repressed it deeply and forgot about it. I kept an eye on most of the influenced people."

Giles suddenly looked at him, like a light dawned on him... He abruptly stood up and ran towards his personal library. The teenagers had seen this routine many times over the course of last year. They knew Giles knew something and was just going through his books to confirm his thoughts and will probably explain when he had formed any hypothesis.

After 30 minutes, Giles came out with a book looking quite serious. He looked at the kids and wondered if its good thing or omen of things coming. He sat down and rubbed the bridge of nose thinking all of what happened so far. With a sigh, he looked up and started talking.

"You are what the supernatural world calls a "Natural Ability User."

Xander looked at him and then scoffed, "Natural ability user? What's natural about it? I got it because of some fools idea of causing chaos on Halloween."

"It's called Natural ability because Gaia itself bestowed this ability to you."

Xander and others blinked as they processed that thought, "What the,... you mean this world itself gave me this ability for some reason? Where does the thing with Halloween come in then?"

Giles hmm-ed and said, "We are not exactly sure of criteria by which Gaia chooses the user or the ability. So far we know that This world has a will, some call it providence, some law and many others names like that. The natural ability user's power are said to have been given by Gaia itself. It's usually determined by what that person thinks is the most special to them. For example someone who almost died by drowning might get the ability to control water."

Xander looked stupefied as he listened, "Oh please, I like to play games but it's not as important to me. "

Giles agreed, "Yes, I agree with that, and this is where it gets complicated... I think you were slotted to be given some kind of power by Gaia itself... but when Halloween happened, your ability got kick-started into something that you can use.

"Why it happened? That I am afraid, I don't have an answer for... Chances of anyone else besides Gaia, knowing the answer is not that good."

Willow immediately interrupted, "Hang on, Giles. Why are you so sure that this is an ability given by Gaia. Xander may be have fantastical powers. But most of them could be defined by magic. His inventory is dimensional ability. He martial arts can be supported by magic reinforcing his body. His stats and other are illusion by magic. How are you so sure?"

"Good question, Willow. I am glad you asked that... There is a fundamental difference in the way magic is used by people like Wiccans and ability users. For example, In majority of Wiccan cases, they worship a god or goddess and are granted magic as a result. So the Wiccan witch is taking a little portion of her patron god or goddess and using it to fuel the ritual or to make any changes. This leaves a sort of magical footprint."

"Another reason why I am sure that this is natural ability is simply because even though most of Xander's ability can be explained by different types of magic... it's too costly. For something like this to happen, you'd need to permanently open your connection with your patron god. Gaia can do that easily because humans and how they are interacting with nature comes under her domain."

"Let me explain more to you. This Illusion Barrier Xander created, is quite costly for Wiccans of any kind. If I were to teach any of you to create this Barrier... It would take you months of training to create, plus it would take a lot of magic for you sustain, as this is complex illusion. There are mages who spend their lives specializing creating these barriers in the Watcher's Council. Whereas Xander created one without any effort and from looking at him, he's not even maintaining it simply because for ability users, they subconsciously ask for an Illusion Barrier to be created and Gaia creates it for them."

Willow once again interrupted, "Then how I can create these barriers too? I've been learning Wiccan magic from Miss Calendar."

Giles thought for a second, "That's probably because you haven't decided on any patron god/goddess. From what I know right now you were learning to sense magic inside you and build magical reserves. You are what we call an Acquired Ability User. You can say that through Xander, Gaia conscripted you into her team."

"For majority of good or neutral Wiccans, they tend to choose Hecate as their patron. If you have watched any of the fictional series on Hercules or Xena, then You have some idea on how Olympian gods relationships are with each is quite similar with Gaia. Some gods will be naturally friendly with Gaia, some neutral and some antagonistic."

"For Janus' disciple like Ethan, he could pray for decades to Gaia and he won't get any help. Whereas Hecate worshiping Wicca will have quite easier time to get help from Gaia." This time it was Buffy who interrupted him, "Wait a minute, why wouldn't Gaia help a Janus disciple?"

Willow wondered and spoke out loud, "Hmm... maybe because Janus is also known as God of doorways and passageways besides being known as God of Chaos. With the Hellmouth on Earth... " She trailed off.

"Willow is quite right. Nobody knows how the Hellmouth came to exist on Earth. What we know and have better history for is how demons and dark-spawn were kicked out from this dimension. While the Watcher's Council company lines blindly tend to credit slayers. One slayer alone can't be everywhere. The right answer is Natural ability Users."

Xander, Buffy and Willow were surprised to hear about all of this. "You are telling me, Natural Ability Users kicked the old demons out of this dimension?"

Giles looked at him and smiled, "Yes. This is the third reason why I think you are an ability user. There is one common thing with natural ability users. They all get quite strong in very short amounts of time. From what you've told me, you went from Level 3 to Level 20 in 3-4 days... I would guess, you'd keep getting stronger for quite some time and after that, it'll vary from person to person."

Xander was looking at him seriously, "Yeah... that should be about natural for my ability. From video games, I should be able to level up to around 50 easily. In quite a short time too... If I have to guess the way my ability has responded... I should be able to do that in a month or so. After that, every level should tend to get harder than previous."

"Speaking of slayers, G-man. Where does they come from?"

Giles,"If you want to know if they are Ability Users, then the answer is no. I am not high enough in the Council to know the details about the first Slayer. Even though I have some suspicion about it but its not confirmed. The Watcher's Council knows exactly how and when first Slayer was created."  
Xander was quite glad to get some understand on his powers. Though now he had tons more questions about it.

Xander said, "So we are Natural Ability Users. So we are like Gaia's way of combatting dark elements?"

"Yes and no. Ability users are going to be introduced to supernatural sooner or later, that is a given. How they are going to respond to it is something that they completely control. You, Xander have been involved with fighting alongside Slayer. For what reason? What about hundreds of other civilians who were also involved one way or another. Most of them repressed and then completely forgot about it."

"This point also reminds me tell you about 'Interference Law'. According to this law, if you do something so abnormal that it has large and noticeable effects on ordinary people. Gaia will simply eliminate you."

"HOLY FUCK... what the hell?"

All the teenagers were wide eyed at this.

Giles smiled at their response, "You also know this law as Karma or in Wiccan circles, the 3-Fold Return Law. Both are more than just religious tenets. But then again, its also quite vague. Only Gaia knows how she'll respond. So there are lots of ideas and theory on this, but nothing substantial. But know this for sure, it exists. Gaia will punish those who break her rules."  
"Best thing is for you to use Illusion Barriers as much as possible, during your training, fights etc. They are created for that reason."

Xander looked at Willow and Buffy, then turned towards Giles, "So what does all of this mean for me?"

"What this means is, you now have the ability, you can do whatever you want, however you want. But one thing is for sure, You'll meet other Ability Users. Like all mankind, you'll find good people, bad people and scum of the underworld. The risk is quite similar to you first finding about vampires. I know you are going to train your abilities because you can't leave the supernatural. So do it. Become strong, really strong. You do have potential to become strong. What path you'll choose is up to you."

**[Quest "Find Your Power's Origin" Completed]  
Experience : 30 xp.  
Finally, What took you so long?**

He blinked as he read the prompt and then clicked it off.

"G-man, I have another question. I invited Buffy into our party. She was able to learn new skills through my Gamer ability. But when we gave her magical skill book, It gave her an error that She couldn't learn this skill. Any ideas why?"

Giles was listening carefully to this and then said, "Yes, its quite simple. The Slayer gets mystically empowered. Any magic that a Slayer has, makes her stronger. Buffy's magic is making and keeping her strong, fast and gives this empowerment."

"Thanks Giles, I appreciate you helping with this. Do you want to see what can I do or even Willow for that matter?"

For next half an hour, Giles joined their party and saw everything first hand. He was surprised and boggled by such a crazy ability. He didn't say anything but you could see his expressions. It was quite funny for the teenagers to hear Giles muttering "Good Lord" over and over again.

* * *

**Xadner Harris (Lvl 22)**

HP : 1616  
MP : 1144

STR: 21 (31.2) | VIT: 23 (39.6) | DEX: 20 (32.4) | INT: 28 (28.4) | WIS: 23 (22.6) | LUK: 7

**Willow Roseburg (Lvl 22)**

HP : 1410  
MP : 1983

STR: 20 | VIT: 21 | DEX: 20 | INT: 93 (102.3) | WIS: 45 | LUK: 22

**AN: I just corrected the Stats for HP and MP. Now I am adding 10 X VIT for HP + 50 Levels for Each Level So far. I'll be making changes in previous Chapters according to this.**

**Now there is an Issue about VIT. Should Xander (or any other character) get any kind of bonus for Reaching 50 VIT Like it did for INT in The Gamer? and What should be.**

**This was my attempt at putting both stories together. Gaia didn't like Hellmouths and demonic attempts to burn the whole world. With Other Powers (PTB and WolfRamHart, Gods) and influences around, Natural ability users are her way to handle that problem.**

**Xander and Willow didn't farm for levels. At 22, they are working to get a decent set of stats on their STR/DEX/VIT. Willow so far doesn't have any Passive Buff, besides Memory Bank 10% in INT. I am not showing Buffy's stat here. Because her stats hasn't changed much. She only joins the Party for training help.**


	4. Life is a GamerOR Not

**Chapter 4 : Life is a Game... Or NOT.**

Early in the morning around six AM, He received a frantic call from Willow. They had two tests in English Literature and Mathematics. She told him to "Get your butt here and create a time-dilated ID". Of course, five minutes later, He got a call from an irate slayer to leg it as fast as possible.

You don't piss off a Slayer. He moved so fast, he thought he accidentally used inner energy to increase his speed. Or maybe, it was just adrenaline.

Well, anyway, he created the Time-Dilated ID and invited them into party. Why miss a chance for increasing INT experience? So they all sat down to study. Thankfully Willow in her meticulous detail had all the notes with her. This is where things changed.

Buffy asked, "Willow, I am getting a prompt from English Literature notes?". She clicked [Yes.] "Ok, Now I know pretty much all the notes." as Buffy burned and absorbed the notes.

Willow shrieked, "Buffy, those were my personal notes. You were supposed to memorize them, not burn them!"

Buffy defensively said, "Sorry, Wills, I got a prompt for asking me to learn the notes... Literature is theory, so it shouldn't have asked me."

Both Willow and Xander went quiet at this. They had no idea what happened. Xander turned to Willow and asked, "Wills, I bet you remember all of your notes. So can you write it down again?"

Willow sighed, "I type faster than I can write, So I do have a Word copy in my laptop." She opened her laptop and showed them this. "Here, this is the notes on English Literature."

"So your notes are in multiple mind-maps, notes and detail on the timeline and storyline. It's also quite in detail about characters and their progress." Xander grinned, "Wills, you might have created a way for us to absorb theory material. We need to create notes. If we split subjects between us, we can share each others notes to absorb information quickly. Hell, we have some money to burn, we can pay other geeks to create notes for us."

"How about you print all of your notes for today and then we absorb and go through the stuff we need for today's test. That will give us not only information we need but also help us strengthen our knowledge by revising it multiple times."

"And yes I am getting a WIS point for this." [**WIS Increased by 1.]**

Willow pouted, "Hey, it was my idea to do this... why am I not getting a point for that?"

Xander smirked, "Because you are not putting your one-hundred-plus INT to use. Don't forget, Wisdom is all about choosing the right path from multiple paths."

Willow pouted and crossed her arms, as Buffy and Xander snickered. They went back to studying using Willow's notes and then revising all the content multiple times. All that time spending increased Buffy's INT by one.

Both Willow and Xander already had high INT, so the chances of their increasing it by a level would be pretty low. They would need to work a lot harder. This made Xander think about investing few points in INT and getting [Mana Affinity] as a skill. +30% on any mana based attack was a good buff to have.

The day before, while showing Giles his skills, he and Willow had leveled it up few times. He had gained three levels and then he let Willow take as many kills to get extra experience to level her up three times. Now both of them were at level twenty-five.

Willow once again decided to add ten points to INT and five points to WIS. She had gained three extra skills for raising her INT above one hundred. Her Mana Regeneration had doubled and gained [Medium Mana Capacity], adding to her 15% Damage bonus and -10% on Mana Cost.

She also gained another bonus ability, [Psychokinesis]. He wasn't jealous of this. No, sir, not even a bit. After going home, he decided to level up Nine Yin Divine Skill and abusing it in a time-dilated ID, finally it reached level eighteen. Finally it was almost there. The ability he wanted to activate. Oh, he couldn't wait to test those skills. But for now, time for school.

* * *

Xander was glad that Willow had planned for that morning study session. He was sure, he wouldn't have done half as good if he went to it blindly. Well, he'd have to give Willow props for helping him study since kindergarten. She was relentless when it came to study and made both Jessie and him study with her.

So, today, he was feeling good about his tests. Looking at Buffy, he could tell she was excited too. Seems like she did great in the tests. Yup that blinding smile was good enough proof for him.

Buffy was grinning ear to ear as she came towards him and Willow.

"I am sure I am getting an A on both tests. And guess what?" She leaned and whispered, "I got another increase to INT."

"Awesome, Buffy. Now slowly but surely, you are repairing the damage done to your intelligence by the blonde dye job." Xander teased and smirked at her. Of course, getting punched hard for it was worth it.

Willow didn't know whether to get horrified at Xander or laugh at him. So she did the most diplomatic thing she could do. She turned her head around and started looking into the distance where something seemed quite important.

"Anyways, I have something to show you, watch:" Xander said as he lifted his hand. Both girls looked at him curiously and then suddenly looked around them with eyes wide. "What the?"

"This is a new Instant Barrier... temporary for some reason. I can't really affect the surroundings. But for exams and tests, this is perfect. This Illusion Barrier stops time around you for some time." Xander explained to girls.

Xander grinned, "This is going to be my new technique to improve my grades." Willow glared at him at the thought of cheating. Buffy didn't care much about it. Her grades could improve a little. maybe quite a lot.

Xander gulped at seeing Willow glare at him. He decided retreat would be much better. "Oh, I see couple of people I want to talk to... Cya guys."

* * *

Xander walked towards Andrew and Jonathan, he had an idea that would help them in the long run. He greeted both of them "Hey guys, ya have a minute? Got something for you."

Jonathan grinned, "Hey X-man, we do got a minute." Andrew laughed as Xander groaned. "Jon, that was when I was 8 years old... no need to… you know..."

Jonathan chuckled, "Yeah, but it's quite memorable. You know, when another kid introduces himself as X-Man."

Xander palmed his face, "Dude, forget it. I have need for your intellect". Hearing this, both Andrew and Jonathan looked at him. Xander was used to being one of them who got bullied by jocks. So they knew that he wasn't here to bully any homework out of them. So it was also quite curious why he'd come up to them when Willow, the smartest girl in the school, was his best friend.

"I got a deal for you guys. I want notes and I can pay for it. But there is condition on how you gotta write the notes." Xander explained.

"You see, right now, when it comes to school, I have most of it covered. Well, Willow has it. What I want from you two guys, is something extra and I am willing to pay for it."

Both boys looked at each other and John took the lead, "Xander, how about explaining what you want?"

"You see, I want to gather life skills. Anything from self development to real skills like say carpentry or first-aid. Technology is also improving at a fast rate. You guys can chose the topics, just get it cleared with with me first."

John looked at him shrewdly, "Does it have anything to do with your group with Buffy?"

Xander looked at him sizing him up, "Yes, it does."

"We'll do it. Anything to help you guys out." John said as Andrew nodded besides him.

Xander nodded in thanks and then used [Observe] on them. They both had high enough INT/WIS (Jonathan 41/22, Andrew 44/31). One flaw that was both common to them was [Follower]. Any average high schooler can be pretty much labelled as a follower. So what made them so special? Why does there are so many people with High INT/WIS. Is it side effect of having city on hellmouth?

There were many more questions swirling in his mind. He had no answers to them. May be, I need to have another talk with Giles.

* * *

In the Library ^^^^

Xander yelled after not finding Giles in his regular seat, "G-man, got a question or two for you?".

Giles came out with a book in hands with an irritated look. Xander looked at him and naturally used [Observe] wondering how much Giles information changed, since he had leveled up. What he saw was enough for his eyes to pop out.

Xander looked at him seriously, "Giles, I was here because I had few questions. But that changed. What do you know about my Observe Ability?"

Giles remembered his talk with them and said, "If I am right, it gives you information on your opponent." He said and then realized what it could mean.

"Judging from your serious demeanor, what do you see in my information?" GIles asked with a sigh. He didn't want to burden the kids with such things.

"Giles, there are couple of things. But I am more interested in finding out about 'Summoning Magic' and your connection to Eyghon, first."

"Alright. Can you create an Illusion Barrier first? I don't want anyone else to stumble on us."

As Xander created the Illusion Barrier, Giles sat down and took off his glasses.

"We were nothing but young fools. Like most young ones, we also thought we were invincible or 'it' won't happen to us. I was 21, studying history at Oxford. We also studied the occult by night. I hated the tedious grind of study, the overwhelming pressure of my destiny. I dropped out and then fell into the worst crowd that could have me. We practised magicks. Small stuff for pleasure or gain. Then Ethan and I discovered something bigger."

"One of us would go to sleep and others would summon Eyghon. It was an extraordinary high. A high caused by magic. It was our ecstasy. God, we were exceptional fools."

Giles shook his head and leaned back in the chair and then continued.

"One of us, Randall, lost control. Eyghon took him whole. We tried to exorcise the demon from Randall. But it killed him. No, we killed him."

He then rolled his sleeves and shows Xander his tattoo. "This tattoo is proof of our stupidity. It's the connection that reminds me to this day of my foolishness."

Xander looked at the tattoo and wondered about Giles words.

"Giles, I am sorry to say... but this tattoo really is a connection to Eyghon. A live connection. If this tattoo was just a tattoo... I wouldn't get information about that. It says 'Cursed Tattoo - Linked to Eyghon.'"

Giles was stupefied and stammered out... "Aaa... are you sure, Xander?"

"Yes, Giles, Here let me try Dispel on this."

Xander reached out and stopped just an inch above Giles's forearm. He whispered, [Dispel] and immediately got a prompt:

**[Your Ability: Dispel is not strong enough.]**

He glared at the prompt for a second, and again, he tried. Again and again, it gave him same prompt. When he was getting frustrated, he got a new prompt:

**[Dispel Level Increased by 1.]**

Xander suddenly grinned and then said to Giles, "Bad news: I can't dispel it. Good news: it helps me level my Dispel Ability. If I level up high enough, I should be able to remove this cursed tattoo."

Giles was glad for this news. If it's linked to Eyghon then he didn't want it on his body. Xander interrupted his thoughts again.

"What about your blocked magic? Your INT has a minus fifty debuff!"

Giles sighed, "That was because of the Watchers Council. They bound my magic because we were summoning demons even if it was just for getting high. It's part of my redemption."

Xander apologized "Well, sorry for digging up old memories, Giles. But when I saw demon summoning, I had to know."

"No thank you, Xander. You were right about being vigilant about this."

"Anyways Giles, I forgot what I came here for, so I'll just go back to girls, cya later". Xander said and left the library leaving Giles to ponder over this thoughts.

* * *

When the scoobies met in the evening, Buffy looked irritated. At first, Buffy didn't want to speak to them about it. But some needling from Willow crumbled any resistance Buffy had.

"I saw a guy together with my mom. Argh... It looked like they both like each other. I think they were planning to meet each other for a date tonight."

Xander and Willow looked at each other, "You know Mrs Summers is one fine lady." Buffy glared at him, making him backtrack. "I mean, she's single now. So you shouldn't mind it... much." Hearing that Buffy's eyes were spitting fire. As always Willow came up and saved his ass, "Are you sensing something? You think there is something wrong with the guy?"

Buffy sighed and then said, "Yeah I think... maybe... I don't know. I feel nothing from him."

Xander smirked at her, "You know Buff, you don't have good track record with your spider sense.

"But if you want, I can take a look at him. My [Observe] is pretty darn high right now. It should give us good information about him." Xander said and then leaned and mock whispered. "If you want, I can always edit the information and make him slay-worthy. Remember I take twinkies, dipped in many varieties of sauces."

Buffy chuckled, while Willow slapped his shoulder, "No, you poopy head, just for that... no more twinkies for you."

Buffy chucked watching their by-play, "I know where they are going for the date. Or you can be around when he comes over to pick mom up."

Later, Xander and Willow met Buffy at her house. He discreetly [Observed] Ted and as he read information on him, his jaw dropped in surprise. He turned to Buffy.

"Only in SunnyHell... Believe it or not, that's an android version of Ted."

Both Buffy and Willow blinked few times to process that thought. "What the hell? Is mom in any trouble?"

"I have no idea, Only information that I read is about his creator. This android is a mirror of his own creator. After his creator died, he assumed the role of Ted. His creator's wife is dead. He got married to a human woman and then later she died too. Frankly that's not a big deal for Sunnydale. He's been active for last thirty years."

Willow hmm-ed and then turned to Buffy, "I think we should investigate him properly. Creating an android thirty years ago... the creator had to be a genius. The fact that he could survive in last thirty years as human is remarkable."

Buffy had decided to tail her mom on her date. Both Xander and Willow decided to check out Ted's home and gather as much information as possible.

* * *

At Ted's house, Both Xander and Willow were going through tons of stuff trying to look for anywhere one could store something like a lab. When they found the basement, it was a freaking gold mine (for Willow). Xander, like always stumbled into the weird, in the form of the corpses of Ted's first four wives. This was enough for both of them to realize there was something wrong.

"Forty years, that much data and the processing power needed. Even the best supercomputer we currently have isn't enough. What about the power source? There has to be something..." Willow was mumbling. Xander who heard her, agreed silently with her.

"Willow we need to deactivate him. Whether he is a science miracle or not. Frankly speaking, so far everything we stumbled onto is suspect."

Willow at first wanted to disagree with him. But then realized it was more risk than they were ready to take or handle.

"Wills, let Buffy know to not let her mother be alone with him and alert when they are coming back."

Willow sent a message to Buffy as she looked at Xander tapping on the walls. "What are you doing?"

"You know Wills, in movies, you tap at walls to find hollow sections. I am testing to see if that works... ah, the sound changed. You think we have another hidden room?" Xander asked Willow.

"Step Back. [Divine Yang Palm] Xander said as he charged energy into his palm and struck the wall hard. Crumbling it.

"Show off," Willow mumbled and outloud said, "you know, no need to shout out your techniques like in movies. And they sound cooler in Chinese. Well as long as you don't understand it."

Embarrassed, Xander chuckled and sheepishly scratched his head, "It sounded better in my head. I got access to my inner energy recently. So far I haven't had much time to test it."

This hidden room was what you'd call a proper workshop. Whoever Ted Buchanan was, he was a certified genius. He had no idea what all of the stuff was, even then he could tell this was a gold mine. He started using [Observe] on every single thing there. Soon enough he found the workstation and manual. Which he absorbed immediately.

"Ah. I know how to deactivate him without breaking him," Xander said. Willow looked at him curiously as he continued explaining, "I was thinking, this is good chance to get a robot as a helper. We'll need to re-write his entire module on restrictions and permissions."

"I just absorbed the basic manual on constructing androids. Most of the technology we have here is like half a century ahead. Even I can tell that. You know about DNA computing? You know how our DNA strand is a huge database containing zettabytes of information? It was not even a parallel evolution of technology. He created an entirely new technology tree with the stuff he created."

"What are you saying? Should we take credit for all of this work?" Willow asked as her eyes narrowed.

"No, what I am saying is that we should let out this knowledge. I have no desire to be in front of the public. Hell, I'll let our new Robo-Ted take the complete credit for it. We are demon hunters, and we barely have support in form of you, me and Giles. Money solves many problems, no matter what our personal thoughts on it are."

"We create a new company and then slowly in next few years, we introduce most of the tech from this guy. All of the heavy equipment here can help us. If Ted can create his exoskeleton here then we can create tons of stuff. It's not like its an Enchanting forge or something. You know, we have access to technology here."

Willow gave him a look that he couldn't describe and said, "Xander, tell me, would you have said the same if you didn't had these powers? Even if Ted is a killer robot, Would you still try to profit from all of this?"

He was startled at the thought and said, "I don't know. Even then I wouldn't want all of this knowledge to vanish. I don't care about money or fame. Without this level of nanotechnology, we simply cannot create DNA based computing systems right now. This is Star Trek level of nanotech."

"I am using [Observe] on all of this stuff. We are going to empty this workshop. Let's check out this workshop properly. Don't burn any info books."

After an hour and half of searching and waiting, they heard someone coming down to the basement. Xander was prepared. He prepared inner energy in his forefinger and hand. In one single thrust, he pierced the back of Ted's skull, where the skull rests on the spine. To completely disable Ted in one single shot, there was only one point. Even if you chopped his head off, he wouldn't be deactivated. Ted immediately crumpled on the ground and disintegrated. Xander got another window prompt:

[**You now have access to the Teddy-bot Instant Dungeon**.]

In front of him, there was a laptop where Ted had disintegrated. He used [Observe] on the laptop.

**[Ted's Laptop]**

**[You now have complete access to Ted's Workshop. With this Laptop, you now have access to every single blueprint and guide Ted Buchanan created in his lifetime.]**

Xander turned to where Willow was hiding. "Wills, call Buffy. We should decide what we need to do with all of this."

By the time Buffy came, Willow was looking through Ted's Laptop. She was excited about the concepts discussed. Ted's body had vanished. They simply couldn't reprogram him and use it. Just with the workshop they wouldn't be able to create full human sized androids. The best Willow could do was send email or voicemail to Ted's company for a urgent vacation.

If they needed to empty the workshop, they could do in an Instant Dungeon and no one will be any wiser to their activities. Though they had no idea how they'll get this level of tech out in the market. Willow would be their main programmer and Xander decided to learn as much of business, marketing and sales as he could. Buffy decided on public relations and advertising.

Even though he wanted to make this place their base, girls didn't listen. "It was creepy." they said. He gave into their demands. The idea to create a secured base was important. Hell, they should have a base, plus few fall back points somewhere in Sunnydale and outside. They had the money to rent, with some farming, they would be able to buy a place or two.

* * *

Over the next couple of days, Xander sat down with the whole group and explained his idea of creating secured bases and fall back points. They discussed many important topics like turning their money into legal money. Buying real estate is going to be important investment from their point of view.

Xander and Willow also spent lot of their time leveling up their stats and skills. He now had access to inner energy. He could feel energy thrumming in his body. Cloud Ascending Ladder was one sweet skill but very expensive in terms of mana. One-hundred mana per activation. Fast movement, jumping high or falling from few floors safely were worth it though.

He also found himself using Wudang Taiji Fist and Sword. He focused more on his martial arts and leveling up Taiji Fist. An all out fight with Buffy was the best way to level up his Physical Endurance, Wudang Taiji Fist and Cloud Ascending Ladder.

He was currently level twenty-five and his stats were decent enough:

**STR - 32 (43.4)**

**VIT - 33 (51.6)**

**DEX - 31 (45.6)**

Most of his skills were also at high level with [Observe] at the top. Balancing between leveling up his stats and skills was pain in the ass, but he was happy with where his current skill set was in about a week so far.

**Observe - Level 47**

**Physical Endurance - Level 35.**

**Spinning Mana Arrow - Level 29**

**Inner Energy - Level 25**

**Power Strike - Level 22**

**Wudang Martial arts - Level 21**

**Instant Dungeon Create/Escape - Level 19**

**Bind - Level 17**

**Mana Shield - 17**

**Spiral Energy Bolt - Level 10**

**Inner Energy Strike - Level 10**

Most of his skills were based on close combat. He moaned at the thought of becoming a tank. Tanks take most of the punishment in RPG games.

"Right now, I need something or someway to improve both HP and MP regeneration. Willow's MP regeneration doubled when her INT went above 100. That's a good option. In RPGs, there are always HP/MP regen stuff that user can equip. Where the hell can I find one?"

"Most of the Watchery stuff Giles has, doesn't contain much knowledge or skills on magic. Most of it is theory that I can't use."

**[Forced Entry into Instant Dungeon]**

Xander Blinked at the sudden window prompt and narrowed his eyes. He was forced into this Empty Dungeon. For what reason?

"Hoh... That's good. You immediately become alert."

Xander immediately turned towards the sound. He narrowed his eyes at the speaker and used Observe. The speaker was about 6 feet tall. very muscular and looked capable. As he read his stats, he paled with fright.

**John Savage [Level 58]**

STR - 98

VIT - 95

DEX - 94

INT - 21

WIS - 19

LUK - 11

**STATUS** : Bounty Hunter John Savage is excommunicated from his clan for being too bloodthirsty, having killed five students and a teacher. He revels in blood lust and known to lose his mind during the fight.

**Blood Lust +10 STR/DEX, -10 WIS/INT.**

**[Gamer's Mind Activated]**

Xander thanked his Gamer system for interruption. "What do you want?"

"Oh... scary eyes, kiddo. I have to say, I am impressed. You realized you are not in my league yet you are not showing any fear." he said.

Xander looked around and then looked back at him. "You are here for me. WHY?"

John Savage smirked "Why, indeed? Reasons doesn't matter."

"It seems like you won't let me go without a fight."

John Savage laughed, "Kid, Its not a fight when I am killing you, you know that. Don't you?"

Xander has already tried escaping from Instant Dungeon without any success. From Mad Dog's information, this was going to be a fight for life. He wanted to equip his sword but his sword skills were far below his hand to hand combat..

'His stats are almost twice mine. I am fucked, royally fucked today. If Buffy was here, she could have... No, I don't have to think like this.'

His mind made up, he moved into his fighting stance with complete focus on his opponent.

"That's the right choice, kid. You don't have the option to leave without a fight. If you impress me, maybe I'll tell you why."

Xander heard that, but this time instead of tensing up, he relaxed. He had decent experience fighting with Buffy. Last couple of days were really good practice fights with her. But no matter how real, they were still practice fights. This, in front of him, was real.

John Savage jumped from his position to the ground a few feet in front of him. He had a creepy expression on his face.

'Ah... he's a pervert. I just hope he's not the kind who ... eww...' Xander shuddered just thinking about it.

Suddenly John Savage punched Xander. In response Xander activated [Taiji Fist] and parried the attack. The attack was powerful, and he was only able to neutralize five percent of the energy using circular motions of the Taiji technique called [Kakei].

Just five attacks and trying to neutralize each of them. Even with Physical Endurance, Xander's HP went down five hundred.

**[Fighting For Your Life: Activating and improving your skill increases your Taiji Fist by 1].**

He ignored the prompt and kept parrying and trying to attack his opponent. Even though his opponent's stats were twice his, John Savage wasn't very fast.

'So he's testing me?' he realized with a start. This time as he neutralized another attack, Xander powered up eight [Spinning Mana Arrows] and shot them at John Savage at close combat range. "Aww... that hurt." There was smile on his face, that scared the crap out of Xander.

"Again I am impressed. Not only were you able to neutralize every single attack by ten to fifteen percent, but you had time to shoot magic arrows." He praised Xander's skill.

"Hmm. You are used to fighting opponents faster than you? Who is your teacher, kid?" John Savage was curious.

Xander didn't say anything. He had only thirty-five percent of his HP left. He pulled out [Medium Health Potions] and topped it up. He was surprised John Savage hadn't stopped him from using them. A battle nut, this was going to be painful for him.

Xander asked "Why are you after me?"

John Savage scratched his chin, and said "No other reason, than having decent enough mana pool for an Ability User."

"Mana pool? What the hell would you do with my mana reserves?" Xander asked.

"Oh you don't know? I am surprised you don't know about it. You must be new Ability User. Ah... pity. Pity."

During this conversation, Xander had activated Spiral bolt behind his back and using [Cloud Ascending Ladder] for movement, he moved and attacked John Savage by throwing the [Spiral Bolt]. It was a surprise attack but even though Xander hit him point blank, it wasn't enough. He knew that.

The pressure of Spiral Bolt was high enough to throw John Savage back into the wall. Xander took this time to activate his Cloud Ascending Ladder and move away and hide using his Ogre's Invisibility Hat. His heart was thumping wildly into his chest. He wanted to hide for a while to recover. Even though Health Potions were as good as they advertised, He had lost some Mana Points too.

Even if he put most of his points into INT and gained [Mana Regeneration], it wouldn't help him. Generating forty to fifty mana points per minute wasn't going to help him.

He had enough stat points in reserve to put him around John Savage's level. There was no doubt about that. At Level 25, even if he ended up spending all of his points, it wasn't going to be a bad deal.

"Awww. Kid, you're hiding. I thought you were a fighter like me." He taunted Xander.

"You know, no matter what you do, you aren't getting away from this Illusion Barrier. There isn't any magic I am good at besides creating Illusion Barriers, but those I'm best at. So come out, come out... now." He sing-songed as he said last line.

Xander was creeped out by this. He knew in blood lust, John Savage is going to hunt him like a bloodhound. Maybe, he should add fifteen to twenty points to DEX, and with Cloud Ascending Ladder giving an additional thirty, he could easily match John Savage's speed. Maybe a few points in STR and VIT to help him fight it out longer.

There were many ways this could go. All of them are going to be close, very close. Chances of getting out unhurt were very low. Well, at least thanks to Gamer's Body, most of the injuries would reduce only his HP. That's a huge advantage he has over anyone else. Yes, maybe there was a way.

He sighed and looked up at the sky. He got up and put his Invisibility hat into the inventory and started fiddling with his stats..

"You know, you never told me what you want with my Mana pool?" Xander asked as he came out of his hiding place..

"Ah... came out. Looks like you got plan. As for mana pools, there are factories which take care of careless ability users like you. I deliver you to them and I get paid. Simple enough. What they do with you is their problem."

That was surprising new information. So new ability users were hunted for their mana capacity to be used as what? Potion ingredients? Mana batteries?

He didn't know and didn't have any inclination to know about it. So he got ready for his first serious fight for life. And there was no Buffy around him to help out.

* * *

**Xander Harris (Lvl 25)**

**HP :** 1691

**MP :** 1507

**STR:** 34 (42.8) | **VIT:** 35 (44.1) | **DEX:** 33 (41.6) | **INT:** 52 (50.7) | **WIS:** 29(26.5) | **LUK**: 7

**Willow Rosenberg (Lvl 25)**

**HP :** 1560

**MP :** 2133

**STR:** 28 | **VIT:** 31 | **DEX:** 32 | **INT:** 103 (113.3) | **WIS:** 45 | **LUK**: 22

**AN: Some changes that happened in background. Xander added points into his INT raising it to 52. Even with the debuff he is over 50 and is now getting a 10% boost in Mana Recovery Plus 30% boost in Mana-related effects. It simply made sense to get that.**

**Now I want some help on this. STR/VIT/DEX. What should Xander get as bonus for Raising these stats to 50? Something like INT? Because in the next chapter, he's going to put points in these stats to survive this fight. So it's unavoidable. I've already finished writing the fight scene so far.**

**So far I am writing based on rough ideas and only later in the end, I'll show the difference in stats.**

**Here's what I am thinking so far:**

**VIT - HP Regen. How much? 2-5%? (5% would be 84.5 HP/min)**

**STR - Increased Attack/Defence?**

**DEX - Active Movement +50%? Thats too much His total Dex would be 50 (63) adding 50% that's 93.5. Maybe Passive +10-15%.**


	5. A Broken Three-some?

"Bad doggie, bad doggie..." The beautiful vampiress slams the fledgling vampire into the wall and dusts him with a stake.

"Oh..." She moans with delight, 'Kitten is now roaring like a lion... ROAWWWRRR." she roars.  
She giggles and dance around, while another vampire watches on. He walks closer to her.

"Dru, pet. Stop killing the fledges. Now tell me, who is this kitten and bad doggie?" He grabs her hand and pulls her closer.

"Ms. Edith says the stars are all wrong, bright and burning brighter. Kitten roars like a lion and no one hears. I do, I do."

She giggled once again. Spike was amused and little worried. It seemed to him, this was some sort of vision. Worse thing was, someone was getting stronger, and he had no idea who.

"Pet, tell me, who's this kitten?"

"Spike, come dance with me in mad dogs blood."

"Fantastic idea love." He wondered aloud. "Now where we'll find this mad dog?"

* * *

When Xander came out from his hiding place, he knew it wasn't going to be easy for him. Even if he had made few changes in his stats:

16 - Added in STR  
15 - Added in VIT  
17 - Added in DEX  
**STR **\- 50 (69.5)  
**VIT **\- 50 (69.5)  
**DEX **\- 50 (69.5)

This was his best option without using all of his points. He still had 63 extra points left. Now it was about choosing which technique from his list.

Both Nine Yang and Nine Yin Divine skills would give him a +30% boost in STR/DEX.

That's about 90, even then he's still 5-7 points less than Savage's stats. With attacking power, his stats would pretty much match Savage's. But for someone who has been a bounty hunter for some time with such high stats, there is a good chance he has some kind of boost ups too. Like his Blood Lust, +10 in STR/DEX.  
This was why he avoided using Nine Yang. Because he didn't had any technique to boost his attack power beyond Savage's range.

As he started walking towards him slowly, Xander activated [Nine Yin Divine Skill] first. At level 25, he was only losing 10 MP per minute during activation. Besides the additional boost, both Yang and Yin Divine skills also heal actively.

**[Nine Yin White Bone Claw Activated]**  
+30 VIT/DEX, 15+ STR.

This technique was very costly in terms of results, mostly because of the side effects. The pupils of his eyes started turning white and his nails lengthened and turned white with wisps of chi coming out of his hands.

"Ha ha ha... I knew it, you were far too calm. Is that some forbidden technique of your clan?" John Savage asked him.

With his next step, he took a lunge and used his movement technique. Traversing twenty feet in a fraction of a second and getting behind John Savage. This was very first time Xander had used this technique. The change was enough that it threw off his aim. So instead of scalping his opponent, his claw hand swiped across Savage's back injuring him.

Xander's next attack almost ripped the muscles from around Savage's chest and shoulder. Pressing his advantage in speed, Xander kicked Savage hard, folding him over and throwing him away from him.

[Nine Yin White Bone Claw] was burning through his HP very fast. He knew, if he didn't finish this fight soon, it'll be Game Over for him. With the thought of finishing the fight, he lunged at John Savage once again.

For his effort, he received a powerful blow to his midsection. He didn't want to give John any advantage. Even while taking the blow, Xander managed to swing around and add another claw attack to his opponent's abdomen.

Even after taking a couple of powerful attacks, John Savage didn't stop. Instead, he flipped away from Xander. This time Xander saw changes in his body.

**[Blood Lust Activated +10 STR/DEX]**

'His blood lust activated? Even with ten-plus buff, I have the advantage. I should finish him before I drop dead from over using my own technique.' Xander thought and advanced towards his opponent.

This time, there was a difference in the fight. Even though Xander was able to stack some injuries to his opponent, Savage still had over sixty percent of his stamina left. His own was about fifty percent because of the side effect plus injuries received in the fight. Simple math said he'd lose. Fatally.

Once again deciding to change the game, he dashed towards his opponent, getting behind him, and kicked him in the side throwing him towards a wall. Just as he was about to dash, a status window popped in front of him.

**[Blood Lust + 15 STR/DEX]**  
STR - 113  
DEX - 109

Xander almost stumbled with fright. Savage's blood lust was still boosting his stats. It seemed like they were boosting it by five points every time. That's scary. There was no time for idle thought. Either he finished it now or never.

This time, he swiftly moved towards his opponent who was coming out from the destroyed wall. Before John Savage could start his dash towards him, Xander added [Cloud Ascending Ladder] movement. This technique, once activated, could be used for fifteen seconds at maximum.

This boost in his movement was more than enough for John Savage to lose sight of Xander.  
Another [White Bone Claw Attack] connected, this time with its intended target, the scalp. This technique could even be called a Demonic technique. Simply put, killing your opponent by breaking and piercing into his scalp using the fingers, leaving five holes in the scalp.

Xander heard bone crunching under his hand. This was first time he heard that sound and momentarily let go of the technique.

He paid dearly for his mistake. As his opponent took the opportunity to kick him into the wall.

"Ha ha ha... What a fight. I've never come this close to dying. Kid, I salute you." It looked like Savage had lost himself completely in Blood Lust. Blood was flowing into his eyes from the scalp. Xander could see a blinding smile and battle lust on his face.

**[Blood Lust + 20 STR/DEX]**  
STR - 118  
DEX - 114

Once again Savage's status changed. Xander had no idea what the upper limit to this status was. But he knew, he was on losing end. He cursed himself for letting go during that moment of distraction.

This time, it was John savage who initiated the attack. Re-directing and countering his attack, Xander knew he still had a slight advantage. Once again, he used [Cloud Ascending Movement] and got behind John Savage. But John Savage was ready and turned around.

"HA, do you think you are first speedy type I've fought, kid?" John Savage taunted. Xander used this time to rush him towards a broken wall with full force of his Movement technique. Right now, his DEX stats were 150 with active [Cloud Ascending Ladder] movement and all the other Yin based techniques.

This was not a martial technique, rather a push with full force. Even with magic, physics still applies to objects. Such force and momentum pretty much lifted both of them off their feet.

"Kid, it seems like you got me this time." John Savage said. In the bum rush, Xander was able to push him on to rod that was jutting out from the broken wall. This rod pierced John's heart and then Xander's right side of his chest.

Technically it was mutual knock out. Xander was losing his HP fast. It seemed to him, like he really killed himself. With a thought, he used [Nine Yin White bone Claw] on John Savage's scalp and finished the technique.

This technique had an additional part, which drains your opponent's Life Force. In the novel, any of the characters who used this technique used it on subjects who were weaker than them. That's why they rarely saw a difference in their life force afterward. For Xander, it wasn't so.

John Savage's life force was much stronger than Xander's, absorbing his life force, Xander started to heal his body.

Even with absorbing the life force, Xander's HP kept going down. So he deactivated all the techniques and started pulling out health potions from his inventory. Every single bottle would add an additional 200 HP to him. He immediately drank ten of potions.

He kept his eyes on his HP bar... as it kept going down... and then stopped at 200 HP.  
Xander sighed in relief and fall back down on his butt. This was very close. Truly Close. He was tired, very tired from this fight. He just wanted to fall down and sleep.

Suddenly he heard a noise and raised his head to see John Savage rushing at him. Even with pretty much no MP and 200 HP, Xander didn't want to go down without swinging. He charged the last of his mana in his fist to increase damage potential and struck toward John Savage.

Seeing that, Savage deviated a little to side and then rushed towards him from another angle. Xander knew this was it, with the miss, he simply didn't have any MP left to overcharge any of his attacks. He felt something hit him hard and he felt both his feet lift from the ground and then fell to ground with Savage on the top of him. That attack had reduced him to 50 HP.

After few seconds, with no movement above him. He pushed the body off him and looked at his opponent. It seemed to him, that was his last ditch attack. "Huh, he died with that weird grin on his face. Fucker, You scared the crap out of me." Xander said as he kicked the body away from him.

Xander once again drank few of the health potions. It was pretty darn stupid of him in trying to save Health Potions. He could farm them anytime he wished. He shook his head at his stupidity and looked at his opponents body once again.

Savage's body had disintegrated and it left bunch of loot.

'Loot again, Even if I fight against real opponents, I get loot? That's cool.' Xander thought and stopped as his mind immediately went to his exchange with Willow. Would he have behaved like this, getting excited about loot dropping from an opponent?

How would he have behaved if he didn't had these powers? That was a question which he didn't had any answers for.

"Am I really changing into something I have no idea about, just because of these powers?" Xander's thoughts were interrupted by a window that opened up in front of him.

**[Gamer's Mind Activated]**  
Gamer's Mind negates the addiction and insanity caused by [Nine Yin White Bone Claw].

**[Inner Energy Level 1]**  
Due to over-using your techniques, Your inner energy is reduced and now at Level 1.

**[Gain +1000 HP]**  
Absorbing opponent's life force fully heals your body temporarily and adds 1000 HP to your maximum.

**[Gain 100 MP]**  
Absorbing opponent's mana adds 100 MP to your mana points.

**[New Status Acquired "Battle Nut"]**  
Passively increase +15% in STR/DEX/VIT. Adds +30% in Attack and Damage when activated.

**[Your Level has increase by 1]  
[Your Level has increase by 1]  
[Your Level has increase by 1]  
[Your Level has increase by 1]**

**[-50% Reduction of Health Points]**  
Abusing your body, reduces your health points by 50%.

**[Stupidity helps you lose]  
[Not making wise decisions helps you lose]**  
Yes, You won, but at high cost. -10 debuff in INT and -5 in WIS.

**[Your LUK has increased by 1]**

Xander groaned at all these messages. His HP was halved, His Inner Energy down to Level 1 from Level 25. Yes, his [Nine Yin White Bone Claw] was expensive. Without proper foundation in Yin Energies, it was a risk for him.

From the novels, most of the technique users did go insane. He chuckled at the thought. From his own knowledge of the technique, if you don't have high enough Yin Energy, then this technique pretty much burns your body to fuel the technique.

Forget insanity, users with low Inner Energy will simply die while using it. Because of the abuse, his pressure points and energy channels were affected. This was the reason, now his Inner Energy was at Level 1.

He'd have to heal these first and then start rebuilding his energy reserves. Xander put a couple of fingers on his wrist, trying to sense the difference. From the medical knowledge he had, right now he had excess Yin Energy coursing through his body, wrecking it. So he'd have to use Yang Energy to counter and heal it. Making a decision, he crossed his legs and started building his energy.

**[Nine Yang Divine Skill Activated]**

He meditated using the skill for couple of hours. Just couple of hours of meditation made a difference to how he felt now. So he got up and then checked the loot.

There were three books and bounty money in front of him

**Bounty Money - $50,000 USD.**

**Book 1 - Illusion Barriers Mastery.**  
Learn how to create different types of Illusion Barriers. This book will teach you to create Temporary, Permanent and Custom Illusion Barriers affecting your status.

**Book 2 - Energy Sensing Mastery.**  
Always know where your enemy is. Learn Energy Sensing to help you differentiate between different types of energies and magic.

**Book 3 - Heart-Mind-Body Manual.**  
A Healing Manual. Heals status effects and Illness. Restores 150 HP.  
+10 % STR/VIT/DEX/INT/WIS passively.  
+30 % STR/VIT/DEX when activated. 1% HP Regen per minute.  
Costs 45 MP per minute.

Seeing the loot, Xander put the previous thoughts behind him. Right now, he was glad for the skill books. He'd have to photocopy them for Willow. The third book was almost god-send, healing and passive/active stats boost would be good for Willow, of course him also. He picked up the loot and put it in his inventory.

'Currently I have an 8:1 ratio time-dilated dungeon. I should use that to heal as much of my body as I can.' Xander decided and broke out of the Illusion Barrier.

**[Instant Dungeon Created - Time Dilated]**

He sat down once again to restart his Yang healing/training. He still had couple of hours to meet with the gang at Library. Sixteen hours of training. Hopefully, he'd be able to improve his status.

* * *

Xander was slowly walking through the streets. He couldn't believe the sequence of events that led to today's adventure.

'HAH, it was a cluster fuck, I think I am still in shock of surviving. What do they call this? Survivor's guilt or something?'

He chuckled dryly at the thought. To tell the truth, he was dragging his feet, because he had no idea how others were going to take this news. He had killed a man. Even though it was purely self defense, still a man had died.

If he didn't have [Gamer's Mind], he would not have even got out of the shock. Right now, all he could hear was bone crunching under his fingers and Willow's words. Was he really changing because of this game?

He was really glad that he had powers now. He hated the feeling of weakness, no, not weakness, rather guilt. Guilt of almost accepting Vamp-Jesse's offer in getting turned. It was a lucky shot that killed Vamp-Jesse. Since then he was living just so he could drive stakes through vampires. Helping Buffy was just a good excuse. Now, he had an awesome power and he was wondering about the morality of it.

'Well, nobody ever called me a genius, anyway.'

He chuckled once again at the direction his thoughts were going. Coming to a stop just outside the doors of the library, he took a deep breath and entered.

He was surprised to see it completely empty. Giles was obviously somewhere deep in the bookcases. The girls weren't there, maybe they were late. He looked at the clock and saw he had arrived about half an hour early. Clicking his tongue, Xander sat on the chair, while propping his feet on the table.

After a while, tired as he was, he closed his eyes and started snoring softly.

It was the sudden shout that roused him from his sleep. As he was waking up, he could hear Willow still shouting at the top of her lungs and lots of background noise from Giles stumbling on to something. As Buffy came rushing through the door with stakes in her hands.

Buffy asked, "WILLOW, what happened?" as she watched Willow who was mortified.

Xander jumped up and looked at Willow, "Willow, tell me, what happened?"  
It was then, Buffy noticed blood on his shirt and gave a startled gasp.

"Xander is that blood? Are you hurt?" Buffy looked at him worried. By this time, Giles had also come out.

It was Giles who took command of the situation. He looked at the situation and shook Willow's shoulder to get out of her trance. "Oh Xander, Willow what happened? Good lord, lad, you're bleeding. Don't just stand up there with your mouth open, Buffy. Bring the first-aid kit here. Go."

"G-man, I am OK. No need for any medical aid." Xander said and then turned to Willow who was pale as a sheet. "Relax Wills, I am perfectly fine. Don't forgot, any injury I receive only reduces my Health points. So I am perfectly fine."

Hearing his words seemed to revive poor Willow, she managed to stammer out, "Oh...h.. Xander, are you .. OK?"

"Yes, Wills," Xander stepped closer and hugged her. "See, I am completely healthy."  
He then turned to Buffy and Giles.

"I'm sorry for scaring you guys," Xander lifted his shirt to show his uninjured chest which had a small healed scar. "See, there are no injuries. I am a little tired though. So let's sit down and I'll tell you about this blood over a cup of English tea. What do you say about that Giles?"

"That sounds like a brilliant idea, Xander."

* * *

While Giles was boiling water for the tea, Xander pulled out another shirt from his inventory and changed into it. Even with Gamer's Mind, he was little out of it as he forgot to change his bloodied shirt earlier.

Willow, it seemed to him, was still quite scared and didn't wanted to let him out of her sight.  
When he sat down, he pulled Willow closer to him as she hugged him and he opened his other arm for Buffy to hug him. Which she did, pleasing Xander very much.

"Now that's a three-some I like," he waggled his eyebrows at the girls.

Giles came out with tea and something to eat. He then turned towards Xander and asked, "So now you are going to tell us what happened?"

Xander sighed and leaned back, "You know it seems like I am only one who's making with all the explanations these days."

He chuckled at the glares Giles and the girls were giving him, "I ended up fighting for my life against a Bounty Hunter of sorts. They hunt new Ability Users."

He could hear girls gasping at this and see their face paling. "Xander, someone's out there hunting Ability Users?" It was Buffy who asked.

"Yeah, he wasn't very keen on talking. But he still told me that, he hunts Ability Users and delivers them to people who have factories of some sort. I think they either use them for potion ingredients or mana batteries."

Willow who was silently vowing vengeance on anybody who hurt her Xander, interrupted him, "How strong was he, Xander?"

"Very strong Willow, He was at Level 58, most of his major stats were in mid 90's."

There was pin-drop silence as they listened to his comment. Those stats put him far over any Slayer. They realized, even if Buffy was there, it would have been a desperate fight.

Willow asked, "How did you defeat him, Xander? You are only Level 25, your best stats were in the 40s."

"Wills, I had to increase my stats. With the buffs I am getting from different techniques, I was able to defeat him."

Hearing this, Buffy's eyes narrowed, 'Then how did you get this blood on your shirt."

Xander sighed once again, "It's my blood. During the fight, I ended up pushing him into a rod that was jutting out. It pierced through his heart and then into my chest."

Now Xander started to explain in detail, how the fight had started and what happened during the fight. He wanted to avoid telling them but he decided to tell them the whole truth.

Something changed when he told them about Savage's death. Even though he killed the man in self defense. Buffy felt it wasn't right, she didn't speak about it. Even if she understood mentally about self defense, in her heart she felt differently.

To a Slayer, killing a vampire or any darkspawn was normal, but killing a man was frowned upon. It was in the Slayer's mentality. Even if Buffy had agreed with him on the thought, there would always be a subconscious thought about it running through her.

To his surprise, he found support from Willow. Even though Willow was his best friend, since Buffy had come to Sunnydale, she often followed Buffy's lead. Even when there were not many words spoken about it, things had changed between the Scoobies.

Sensing this environment, Xander begged off from the days patrolling. He also wanted to spend as much time as possible healing back to one hundred percent. He wasn't particularly surprised when Willow invited him to stay at her place for the night to heal.

* * *

Xander was sitting in Willows' room brooding about things that happened, while Willow was cooking something for the dinner. He then remembered about the books and pulled them out of his inventory.

He went to the kitchen and asked Willow, "Wills, I got 3 skill books from... you know." She nodded to signal that she was listening.

"These three books are about Healing, Energy Sensing and Creating Custom Illusion barriers. I was thinking that we should make copies of them and then learn the skills."

Willow thought for a second and then said, "We could have xeroxed the books in the library to make copies of them. Hmm... You know what we should do? Use a digital camera and take a picture of each . Then use a computer printer to print out copies."

"Hey, that's good idea. Click it, upload it and print it." Xander said. Xander started with the Healing book first while Willow was cooking. He decided to give this one to Willow first. This book would not only teach her how to heal but also will give her pretty sweet passive buffs.

After some time, he finished with the Heart-Mind-Body Manual and as he was starting with Illusion Barrier Mastery, Willow came out with the food. She was good cook. One of the few good things she learned from her mother.

He smiled at her and said, "I am finished with the Healing Manual. You should upload it on your PC and then print it out. We'll do other books after dinner."

Willow nodded and got to work. It took a few minutes to upload the images to her computer and put them in the printing queue. Even with a laser printer, It took some time, by then they had finished their dinner.

After the dinner, Willow took out all the prints and looked at Xander. "Well I am getting a window for learning the skill. At least we can copy skill books and share them." She grinned at Xander and absorbed the book.

"Wow, this book is great. I can not only heal myself but others too. It also has a section on using and improving my body's energy to increase my health and overall stats." She said and then looked at Xander "I would say, it works something like your inner energy. Now I can feel energy inside myself. Actively using it will increase my STR/VIT/DEX. Let me try healing you."

Willow activated her healing skill on Xander. Xander who was keeping an eye on his status, noticed the improvement immediately.

"Wills, open your status window. Mind your mana points while healing me. It'll help you level you up with this skill."

Willow nodded and then started healing him. Xander had created a time-dilated dungeon to practice and heal his body. When Willow tapped out all of her mana, Xander started using Nine Yang Divine Skill to heal himself. While Willow was waiting for her mana to recover, she worked on creating copies of other books.

* * *

During the night with 8:1 time-dilation, they worked hard. Willow was able to level up her Heart-Mind-Body Skill to seventeen. Xander was able to recover all of his health points and started recovering his Inner Energy too. All in all it was productive time for both of them.

Xander had once again skipped school for training. During the night, he found he could not learn the healing manual. His Gamer system gave him a warning about crossing two different and opposite energy flows.

He was only able to use the Energy Sensing and Illusion Barrier manuals. His options for Illusion Barriers had increased many fold. Now, not only could he create Illusion Barriers that had different effects on status but also with different elements to play with. He found four big changes to his Illusion barrier skill.

**1\. Time dilation:** He already had this skill in his list. Even though he only had a time-dilated barrier of 8:1 Ratio . Now he could custom design many types of ratios. There were still some limits.

**2\. Status Effect on User:** When he had read the description, he had whooped for joy. Now he can remove or add buffs temporarily in the dungeon. Currently his stats were pretty damn high. If you count buffs, then they were a little above sixty. Removing all the buffs would help them raise their stats much more easily.

**3\. Status Effect on Environment:** This was another goodie he found in the skill book. He could create a dungeon that could affect the environment. For example, creating a dungeon where objects don't get burned or with increased gravity.

"Super Saiyan training here I come!" Xander exclaimed.

**4\. Status Effect on User and Environment:** Fourth change was a combination of the second and third types of status effect. He immediately realized this type was going to be used excessively for training purposes. He had many ideas on how to go about it.

**5\. Assorted List of Dungeons.** This was like his previous list of assorted dungeons filled with monster opponents. This was all about status effects, time-dilated and monsters. Now he could farm dungeons without wasting as much of his time.

"Mr Harris... Mr Harris." A loud feminine voice to his left startled him and he immediately shifted into combat mode.

In front of him, there was beautiful redhead, about five feet six, lithe with a body of gymnast and wearing librarian type glasses and a business suit. If he couldn't read her level, he would have many lusty thoughts about her. She had folded her arms under her bust lifting them up in nice shape.

Xander knew, if she was someone like Savage, he would have no other option but to leg it. Even though he was healed and had access to his health points thanks to Willow, his Inner Energy was low and most of his techniques deactivated.

She smirked, "No need for any unnecessary caution Mr Harris. I am only here to talk to you."  
She nodded towards her left with head, "There is a coffee shop, we can sit and chat."

Xander nodded in yes and gestured her to walk first. Walking slightly behind her, he realized why gentlemen always insisted on the ladies first rule. There was a vision of perfection walking in front of him. Pretty face, pert ass aside, this woman had [?] for her supposed level. Even with [Observe], all he could see was basic info about working as agent for the Abyss Auction.

She introduced herself after she sat down. "I am Janine Thompson, working at Abyss Auction."

She pulled out her business card and slid it in front of him. "Like the name suggests, its an auction website. The difference is that this auction website serves Ability Users."

Xander somehow wasn't much surprised about this, but still someone needs to keep the discussion on thread, "Hmm... so how do you know about me?"

She smiled serenely and took a sip of her coffee. "Our company handles from very simple transactions to multi-billion dollar transactions. If it exists, You can probably buy it from our site. So would you be any surprised that we also deal with handling information?"

He shrugged and asked. "Scrying?"

She smirked, "We have a division that solely works on finding new Ability Users. On a Hellmouth, scrying is not that accurate because of the dimensional energy interference. In your case, its mostly humint. You haven't been exactly hiding your ability, Mr Gamer."

Xander stiffened at that. For a second, he almost went for her throat. Then he took a look at her smug face and knew any kind of violent response was going to be the wrong choice. He didn't want to become a mindless beast who jumped at others throats at slightest provocation.

More than losing control, he was more worried about this human element. It's true, he wasn't particularly stealthy with his training. "So why are you approaching me?"

"It's pure business Mr. Harris. With your ability, sooner or later you are going to make lots of money. So of course, we want you to spend your money with us. Right now, it's been only eight or nine days since your powers activated. Soon, there will be hunters who'll come for your head. It'd be a pity for us to lose a prospective customer. I'd recommend you to level up fast. You can find many kind of skills on our website that might help you."

Xander in response, took a sip of his coffee and hmm-ed. "You are late with your warnings. But anyways, thank you for reaching out to me."

He got up and paid for coffee and started to leave.

"Mr Harris, ... what do you mean by 'you are late'?"

It was funny to see change from her smug, superior look to a shocked one. Before she could stop him, he turned towards the alley and vanished.

She came running up behind him and growled after not finding him. "Damn kid. So hunters are already after him. Shit." She harrumphed. "And here I was thinking teenage boys were all charged up on hormones."

She sighed and then started walking towards her car mumbling under her breath. What she didn't knew, was that Xander had turned and used his Ogre's Invisibility hat and was watching invisibly as she fumed.

After she left, Xander came out of the alley and then moved towards the library, where he could find Giles.

* * *

A frantic man appeared out of nowhere in front of huge mansion gates. For a second, he stood still, then he started rushing through the mansion. He was coming back from an urgent mission and had very important news to share. This was the news that his lord would be extremely interested to know. Nodding to the guards, he ran up the stairs and then opened the door to his lord's office, entering into the room while keeping his head bowed.

The room was full of silent people standing around his lord. He knelt onto his right knee and spoke.

"My lord, John Savage is dead."

With his words, he now had everyone's attention.

"Hohh... Does this mean the seer's vision came true? Even then, it shouldn't be possible for a new Ability User to kill Savage." asked another aid.

"Yes, my lord, Alexander Harris is a 2nd Shinnin Class Natural Ability User recorded in the history so far. We should have acquired him easily. During the fight, he went from a fighter of middling capacity to far above John Savage. This kind of improvement, I didn't expect from a Natural Ability User."

"Hmph... What do you know about Shinnin Class Users? Last known user of that level was Gilgamesh. He went from nobody to become the ruler of Earth, almost a demi-god."

His lord, who was silently watching the proceeding so far, looked at him. With just a swish of his hand, all he saw was blackness.

The aide standing next to the lord, snapped his fingers and two servants came into the room for a clean up of the body. The aide then knelt down in front of the lord.

"My lord, should I send another agent to capture this Ability User?"

This was a question that was going through every single aides head. An addition of a Shinnin Class User would be great boon to their numbers.

"No. It's a pity that Savage died." The tone of voice was bored, yet aristocratic. "He was quite a competent worker. Sending any other agent would just add to the list of dead ones. This is a mission that requires subtlety not force. Send an infiltration agent to keep tabs on the boy."

The aide was surprised at this order, "My lord, shouldn't eliminating him be our main priority? From all the records we have, A Shinnin Class User, can grow very powerful in a short time. It seems like he's still growing."

The Lord chuckled, "He's no use to us dead. We can't manipulate the dead, Nicholas... and humans, whether strong or not, are quite easy to manipulate."

The aide nodded, "Your subject will do as you command, my lord."

The aide, still kneeling, pressed his head to the carpet in a low bow and then vanished from sight.

* * *

**Xander Harris (Lvl 29)**

**HP :** 2070

**MP :** 1507

**STR:** 50 (60) | **VIT:** 50 (60) | **DEX:** 50 (60) | **INT:** 52 (40.7) | **WIS:** 29(21.5) | **LUK:** 8

**Willow Rosenberg (Lvl 25)**

**HP :** 1560

**MP :** 2133

**STR:** 28 | **VIT:** 31 | **DEX:** 32 | **INT:** 103 (113.3) | **WIS:** 45 | **LUK:** 22

* * *

**AN: This was my first fight scene of the story. It was easy to visualize than to write it. Hopefully I did justice with the scene.**

**About Nine Yin White Bone Claw. This skill is subset under Nine Yin Sutra (Divine Skill). In the Condor Heroes Trilogy By Jim Yong, all three users of this art, pretty much went insane and died. Mei Chaofeng who was the first user, she needed to kill a human a day to keep any sanity she had left. Only the novel (The Legend of Condor Heroes) and its TV series adaptation in 1984 has this part in the storyline. The rest of the recent adaptations went to creative editing.**

**BTW, In my fic, I am using skills from "Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber" Novel by Jin Yong (Lois Cha). Jet Li's movie "The Evil Cult" was the movie adaptation of this novel.**


	6. Life and making lemonade

**AN: I won't have any access to Net for next week. So I am putting up this chapter unbeta-ed. My beta is playing new WOW expansion. Well I can understand the lure of new games or expansions. I'll replace this chapter when I get back.**

Xander was unaware that someone had witnessed his discussion with Abyss agent. They tracked him entering into the alley and subsequently vanishing from the opposite side of the street.

"Ok, how in the world Xander vanished and then came back? I thought it was that Buffy that dealt with all the wacky weird things. Who's the red-head?" she mused to herself.

Known for her barbed tongue, hot bod, Cordelia hid her sharp mind behind her words. She noticed things even if she tried to stay away from stuff happening. She snorted, If her daddy wasn't insisting on staying in Sunnydale for some reason, she would have been gone from this toneless burg.

She massaged her temples, "For all the crap I had to deal in Sunnydale, I had better be getting a Corvette out of this."

She got a good look on Xander, surprised that he wasn't wearing those Hawaiian eyesores.

"I am surprised; he's wearing at least something decent. I didn't knew he was hiding those muscles behind those baggy shirts."

Her eyes narrowed, as she noticed the difference in Xander. There was something fundamentally different in him.

"Oh, I know; he's not slouching. He is walking with a confident stride, the kind even jocks didn't have. The biggest change was still in his eyes."

When Jesse had died, she had noticed his eyes. For a class clown wearing his heart on sleeve, Xander was hardest to read. It was later she realized that Xander had started helping Buffy with those forehead freaks.

She realized that something serious must have happened to him. She sniffed with irritation, "Why the hell I am wondering about dweeb and dweebettes?"

Giving him another look, putting all of her thoughts away, she turned around and started walking towards her car.

* * *

Xander had enough surprises for the day. He was moving at a very brisk pace towards the library. Abyss Auction, the name wasn't giving him good impression. They sent a pretty thing like her to lure him into, god knows what?

He was now wondering, if Giles knew about them? They had discussed few things about Natural Ability Users but Giles never touched on Abyss and anything on mana factories.

He entered in the library and yelled, "HEY Giles, Where are you?"

Giles as usual for him, with a book in his hands, stumbled out from behind one of the book cases.

"You know Giles, If I didn't know you, I would wonder, what naughty things you were doing behind there?" Xander smirked.

"Very droll, Xander. What brings you here?"

Xander face turned serious, "I bumped into an agent from Abyss Auction. Ever heard of them?"

"Yes, an auction site where you can buy anything as long as you can pay for it. So an agent contacted you? For what reason?"

"Nothing, just wanted me to buy stuff from them and gave me warning about the hunters coming after me. This was quite surprising for me too. Do they really send an agent to meet every new Ability User?"

Giles who was busy wiping his glasses, stopped for a moment and then spoke softly, "Xander, You have no idea how powerful your ability is. I have researched on RPG Video Games since you told me. Natural Ability Users get stronger very fast initially. From what I can guess, there is no end to your ability and its limit."

"John Savage was not the kind of hunter, who would have lost against a lucky strike. From my point of view, you should have died there. As far as Abyss Auction, they are trustworthy as far as their deals are concerned. Chances of them coming after you are very slim. Their clients on another hand, are what you now have to worry about."

Xander was perplexed, "Their clients?"

"Yes, Like I said, they sell anything they could get their hands on. That includes information. If they know about you, then chances are they have basic idea of your abilities. Depending on how much they charge, you can have anyone from lower rank hunters to few of upper ranks."

"Yeah, that reminded me; she called me Xander the Gamer."

Giles looked at him and sighed, "Xander, tell me. How much have you recovered from your yesterday's fight? I know you skipped over some details..."

"I am being very serious. If that agent knows about you being a Gamer, then at least there is information packet listed on their website. Sooner or later, you are going to be targeted."

Hearing this, to say, he wasn't scared would be a lie, In fact, he was fucking terrified. One fight to death was one too many for him. Dammit, he was just a donuts guy a couple of weeks ago. Still he wouldn't give up so easily. If they were coming for him, then let them.

"Giles, physically I am fine, excellent even. My major issue is the inner energy. There was too much energy running through my energy channels. So they took a beating. That is slowing down my healing considerably. That's why my inner energy is recovering very slowly. In fact, its taking more than double time for every level than before."

"With time-dilated Dungeon, I'll gain back my old levels of inner-energy. I actually did not lose any of my experience points for inner-energy training. In fact, with all the passive buffs, I am going to be stronger than when I fought Savage in terms of overall stats."

"Most of my physical stats are closer or exceeds Buffy's stats. I have a decent enough mana pool. So Right now, I am working on leveling up my mana based skills."

"Hey, Giles, do you think, you can get me some esoteric magical skills?

Giles hmm-ed, "Since my magic was bound, most of my magical books are stashed in England. I believe you can look for some skill books on Abyss Auction's website. If you need to buy anything, use my address. A watcher getting magical books won't be as suspicious as a teenager getting one."

Xander was glad to hear this from Giles. That was a good idea. Xander pulled out a laptop from his inventory.

"Let me use your net connection, G-man. Then I'll open up the auction site. I can spend few thousand dollars. You can help me look up all the books we can buy... are you really drooling, Giles?"

Giles harrumphed, "humph... I sure am not."

* * *

Rinnggg... Ringgg.

"Dammit, pick it up." She clicked her tongue in irritation. Driving through the traffic, after dealing with that sneaky fucker wasn't improving her mood at all.

"Yeah, it's me. Listen, I just met Xander-The Gamer. I was late. It seems like there are hunters already after him."

"Yeah, he's alive and healthy... so far."

"No need to tell me, I have read his file cover to cover five times, already. There are far too many inconsistencies in his info-packet. I also want to find out everything that is possible about the sucker who came for him."

"Of course, he's dead. For a slight second, there was the look in his eyes. I am sure; kid's hand are tainted now. I want you to put the info on the kid on high priority."

"Arghh... Trust me, he's not going to die just like that. No, I am coming over; I'll talk to you then."

For some reason, after the phone, Janine wasn't as irritated as before. She thought back to her interaction with Xander, no Alexander-The Gamer. Xander was a kid's name. That one was growing up faster. She smiled, It'll be interesting to see his adventures.

* * *

Xander and Giles were looking through the list of books presented in front of them. So far, they had selected few books.

**Trolls Regeneration(Active)**\- Allow wounds to heal by allowing the power of Troll power to heal. Recovers +50 HP/min, +50 SP/min 30 minute duration.

**Skin of Bronze(Active)** \- Protection Magic, skin becomes as strong as bronze, but it retains the color and texture of skin. Makes skin nearly uncut-able or unpierceable. Warning : It doesn't stop crushing damage.

**Strength of a Giant(Active)** \- Increases strength temporarily by granting strength of a giant. + 30 STR with 30 minute duration.

**Basic Elemental Skills(Active)** – Learning and mastering Different elemental skills.

**Basic Granting Magic(Active) -** Grant magic to any object. At level 1, you can add 1 low level magic to 1 item; Duration: 10 min.

Acupressure, Acupuncture and Herbalist books to update his medical knowledge.

A couple of fire based spells, in Sunnydale, it was perfect. Plus he bought basic Information packed on Sunnydale, current Slayer, and himself.

"G-man, it's an auction site. Do you think we can sell some stuff? I noticed those health potions are expensive. We can easily farm them and with the price listed for some of these. You know, no worries about paying for it."

Giles thought for a second and said, "I think, you should create an account in my name. Then we'll list few of our potions."

"Good enough, I am ordering those books at your address. Huh... They have instant delivery. Hey, Giles, do you think they teleport stuff around?" Xander asked as he processed it for Instant delivery.

Giles blinked at that question, "I doubt it, any kind of teleportation is an expensive magic..."

As Giles was speaking, he stopped and then pointed at the alien looking saucer.

"Sweet, that's far better than teleportation, Giles. Take the delivery."

Giles took the delivery from alien looking thing, and opened the box. It had all the books they ordered.. Xander picked one book on random.

**[Would you like to learn "Skin of Bronze" Skill?]**

He chose "No", and then went to the back to create the Xerox of the book. Fifteen minutes later, he came out, grinning like a loon.

"Hey Giles, we can Xerox the books and then absorb it. Isn't that cool?"

Giles rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Are you going to make a copy of all the books, Xander?"

"Yeah, that's the plan. Willow is our resident mage. So I am going to give her a copy of these books and stash a few of copies for future use."

For next couple of hours, Xander spent his time Xeroxing the books, while waiting for Willow and Buffy to came over. Both girls came together chatting about... he shuddered... deadboy. It was Willow who noticed him first and immediately came over and gave him a hug.

This was another difference since his fight. Willow was more openly affectionate. Last night, she didn't let him go out of her sight even once. Hell, they slept in the same bed. Xander combed his hand through his hair. Even he could see the changes that were happening in the Scoobies since his fight.

He groaned, "Oh c'mon. Isn't teenage angst more than enough for us? Hell we got a broody stalker, miss prom queen, clown crushing on miss prom queen. Our life is a fucking teenage drama."

Willow misunderstood his groaning and came over to see if she needed to heal him. His Willow was bestest bud one could ask for. Xander gave her a hug and then started talking about the books and the Auction site to both girls.

For next 15 minutes, Willow, Buffy and Xander practiced martial art skills in time-dilated dungeon. Without access to inner-energy, he needed to get up his skills in martial arts high enough. While Willow practiced her magic techniques. He didn't want to spend much time before going to patrol the cemetery.

There wasn't much difference in stats between Buffy and Xander. Their martial art practice was quite fun for both. As he fought against Buffy, he realized, she never really went all out.

If he had to put in terms of stats, then Buffy rarely used anything more than late thirties or early forties. So when Buffy started going all out for first time in a while, he could hear pin-drop silence from the sidelines.

He had all the major stats at 50's, with added buffs, he was now around 60 plus. So the experience gained during the practice was damn good leveler for him. He also realized the Slayer had a hidden sadist side to her. Or maybe it's Buffy who had it? Who knows, but their sparring almost turned into a real fight.

After the practice, Scoobies went patrolling through the cemeteries. Which were pretty darn dead. Besides couple of leeches, they didn't encounter anything. He was glad of that, with girls around, He didn't want to bump into any of those Ability User Hunters.

* * *

Today again, he stayed at Willow place at her insistence. It seemed to him, that she didn't want to part with him for long time. He didn't mind that, as long as he got to eat Willow's cooking.

During the late dinner, they once again decided to train for whole night. With 8:1 ratio, they can spend tons of time leveling up their skills.

He pulled out Xerox copies of the books from his inventory and gave it to Willow. "Wills, get these books, If you get an error prompt, if you are learning then don't learn it. Ok?"

Willow nodded and eagerly absorbed the books, "Wow, these are powerful skills. Strength of Giant pretty much add 30 points to your STR."

Xander grinned in response, "Yeah, Trolls Regeneration and Skin of Bronze is also pretty damn useful. Not only that, you can stack them. All we need to worry about is mana regen. But I have a temporary solution for that."

"One of the books I got from defeating Savage was about Illusion barriers. So I can create different barrier which affect our statuses. Right now, I am going to create a dungeon, which has a 50 MP/Min Regen plus 5 hour of time-dilated. Didn't you absorbed this skill book?"

Willow pouted, "Yeah, but I have to learn the skill from the start. I have only few options now. Besides the Empty Dungeon, I now have Zombie and Ogre dungeons. Even though I know all the theory about time-dilated, status effect etc. When I try them, I am getting a message to level up."

"Must be because of party thing, Wills. Giles told us, it takes more time for normal magic users to learn Illusion Barriers." Xander wondered.

"Why did it have to be me?" Willow mumbled and grumbled. It was cute seeing her grumble like that.

"Now, let me set up instant dungeon and then start practicing our skills. We should Level up Trolls Regen, Strength of Giant and Skin of Bronze as much as possible."

**[Custom Dungeon – 50 MP/Minute Regen with Time Ratio 5:1 ]**

Xander activated the dungeon and then activated his basic skills. Now he needed these skills more than ever. He was planning to practice Elemental skills but that would be some time later today.

As he started looking through his list, he found that he had neglected to check on the skills, he had gained during the fight with Savage. There 3 of themselves were.

**[Regeneration - Level 1]**

3% of Total HP regeneration.

**[Auto-Dodge - Level 2]**

5.75% chance to avoid an enemy's attack.

**[Breaking Point – Level 1]**

5% chance to break non-living object. Requirement – Planted feet.

**[Flurries - Level 1]**

With great strength and speed, comes more power for destruction. Hitting hard and fast is the name of the game. 3 chances to hit at 50% normal skill at 50% damage. Requires 50 DEX/STR/VIT.

These skills were good complement for his current list of skills. He wondered for a second, how he'll train Regeneration? May be something like the way he trained physical endurance skill.

If he used the new status [Battle-nut] he had gained, with the new skills, he would be ready for any more hunters.

After few hours of practicing and relaxing.

"Xander, look here."

He heard Willow call him out. He looked at around himself and found no one.

"Up here, Xander."

He looked up and saw Willow floating... no it was more like she was standing on some invisible platform in air.

"Holy fuck, Willow, how are you doing that bleach thingie?"

Willow giggled and then jumped from the height. His heart almost dropped at that, but was reassured to see her land safely. He wasn't ready for that.

"Ok that was cool too, How did you do that?"

Willow lifted her foot and said, "See, I am using mana to create a solid surface just below my foot."

He could see the solid mana sheet below her foot, most likely she was creating it big enough to show him.

"I don't get it? How does it went from this to that." He pointed at her feet and then upwards in air.

Willow was excited as she started describing the process, "You know I was experimenting with how I can use mana?". Xander nodded in response.

"So when I was molding mana, I noticed that the shield was just a solid sheet of mana and it was floating directly aided with my will. Something you have seen with Mana Rope. Right?"

"So I decided to experiment with using mana through my feet. If It was possible, I would be able to create a platform for me to stand on. It was pretty easy."

Xander was impressed, "What about jumping from that height?"

"Oh, that was easy too. Once I was able to manipulate different level of mana sheet surface. I created something that'll safely absorb the bounce. So when I landed, I created that soft sheet of mana which wasn't exactly soft but rather bouncy, like some of the stuff stunt men use." She babbled.

"Now when I was thinking about it, I think I can create another mana sheet just below my feet to create a jumping ability. Something like Shunpo or Sonido from Bleach."

Willow said, as she tested by creating some mana-sheet and noticing the bounce she was getting.

"Ok that was impressive. Good work." Xander grinned at her. "Did you get new skill message?"

"Yeah, I did. For Mana sheets, jumping and movement."

"Lets take a break now. We'll need to discuss, create and level up important skills."

Willow agreed with him and they both decided to eat Hot Pizza. Xander had stored multiple pizzas, burgers, Twinkies and god knows what else in his inventory. They ate and talked about their own discoveries. Xander thought back to how long it had been for both to just sit together like this and have a relaxing chat.

After the break, Willow decided to test, the elemental skill book. Xander had suggested her to get an Earth Elemental first for defense, Fire elemental for offense (that was planned for next day). So she decided to create her first elemental summon.

It was exhilarating, it was hard for Willow to explain the process. But she gained a very cute looking Earth Spirit. Xander as always was happy seeing her friend grow stronger. After seeing her success, Xander also went ahead and created pact with Earth Spirit.

They had started training around 12 mid-night and now after thirty hours of training in time-dilated dungeon, both of them raised and leveled up decently of their new skills.

Giant Strength, Bronze Skin, Trolls' Regeneration were all at Level 18.

Elemental was at level 11.

Heart-Mind-Body Skill was at level 24.

Shunpo (movement technique) was at level 10.

Fireball Level 7.

Firewave Level 4.

Bounce was at level 8.

This last technique was an odd one, as not only Willow could bounce from jumps but also reduce some level of damage. One of his attack had thrown Willow on to the wall, which she defended by activating [Bounce] and negated lot of damage.

While keeping these skills active, they had also practiced as many of their skills. For Xander, it was mostly his martial arts skill. Willow who had bigger mana reserves and regen rate, worked on her magic skills. After training, he created another time-dilated dungeon at 8:1 ratio and went to sleep.

* * *

During class in the school.

Mr. Jameson, Mathematics teacher came over to Xander and gave him back his tests. Last week, almost all the teachers were taking surprise tests. It was exhausting for Xander who was busy planning other important activities.

"Mr. Harris, I am impressed with your scores this time. I've noticed, even though you are in advance classes but do not put forth the effort to succeed." Mr. Jameson praised Xander for first time. It surprised Xander, as Mr. Jameson was known for his grouchiness.

"I believe other teachers also noticed significant improvement in your scores. I hope you don't revert back to your slacker days." Mr. Jameson said and then moved on to next student.

"Psst, nerd. Good of you" Larry mocked him.

**[Hard work reduces 10 points Slacker Debuff.]**

This was a surprise to him. He got reduction on his slacker debuff, that means, he'll have access to bigger mana reserves.

He grinned to himself.

"It seems like my status changed when it started reflecting in real world. I got my slacker debuff because I was known as slacker. This time a teacher praised me and hinted that other teachers also noticed this change."

"So I can reduce my social flaw with -10 debuff in WIS by changing how people perceive me?"

Xander looked at Cordelia and shuddered, "Damn, I so don't want to be this close to her forked tongue. Even though I can get a few books on persuasion/networking, fashion, humor and social etiquettes, I think I'd be better off asking Cordy and using books."

**[Intelligent decision raises your WIS by 1.]**

He shuddered at the thought of doing this, but this will get rid of his WIS debuff and not only improve his mana pool but will help him make better decisions.

He wrote a note about it and passed it to Willow, who beamed at him after reading it. He was glad, earlier he was worried, it'd take more effort and time to remove that status debuff. He was busting his ass off these days, improving all of his stats, finally could see some result.

* * *

During Lunch

Xander was walking with a brisk pace. He just finished another session of training with his Inner energy. As he rounded the corner, he bumped into someone.

"Oww. Dammit dweeb, can't you see in front of you." she said.

"Oh, it's only you Cordy. No damage then." Xander looked at her.

Cordelia scoffed at him, and then looked at him with curiosity burning in her eyes.

"Checking me out Cordy? What would your cordettes say?" Xander smirked.

"Ha... you wish, I would look at you." Cordy snarked at him.

"Snarky snarky." Xander smirked. "You know, if you frown and snark like this, you'll start looking older... like say tomorrow. If I didn't know you from kindergarten, I would guess your age couple of years older. You know, in few years, those numbers will add."

Having said his piece, Xander grinned and started walking towards his classroom.

"Hey wait," Cordelia yelled and started walking behind him. "How dare you?" then she looked closely at him, "Like always, you are just pulling things out of your ass."

"What was that about my ass, Cordy? You can look all you want, but no touchy, touchy. It's reserved for special one." Xander said to her.

"Like who? Buffy, she likes cold and old." Cordelia smirked at him.

Xander glared at her. He wouldn't mind smacking her verbally, but for now, he needed to talk to her. But, before that, she needed to be brought down a peg or two. He smirked at her.

"Oh I didn't forget." Xander started mimicking Cordelia using husky voice trying to seduce Angel.

"Heyy… Angel, what do you think? Does these shoes make me look fat?" He added eye fluttering to add special effects to his performance.

Cordelia glared and scoffed while Xander chuckled, then grabbing by her elbow, he pulled her close.

He looked directly in her eyes and said.

"Anyway, I have a need for your skills. I am sure, you'd love what I am going to share with you."

"Why should I?"

Xander just shrugged and started walking away from him. He knew Cordelia, so wasn't surprised when she stopped him.

"Ok, now you made me curious. I'll listen to you. But if you mentioned about this to anyone…" She trailed off with her threat.

Xander made a zipping motion with his hand.

* * *

Later at Bronze in the Evening.

Xander was little late for their meet up, so they decided to meet up at Bronze today. When he entered, he immediately spotted Willow playing pool with some guy and Buffy was nowhere in sight as he looked around the club.

Huh? He took a double take at previous thought. Willow with some guy? How the heck my Shy Willow got up with a guy. No there wasn't any jealousy rearing its head in him. He focused at them and moved like a man possessed.

"Hey Willow, what's up?" Xander greeted his friend.

"Hey Xander, Buffy is around." She gave a shake to her head signaling Buffy was looking for vamps in the club. "Oh hey, this is Ford. He was Buffy's sweetheart from her earlier school. Ford this is Xander."

Ford chuckled and then said, "No, not sweet heart, just a good friend."

Xander shook hands with fords and then automatically used [Observe] on him. He groaned internally reading the information provided, out loud he said, "Cool, any friend of Buffy's is our friend. How do you like this place?"

"It's nice town, quite relaxing actually. Dad transferred and I am here for finishing High school." Xander nodded in response and wondered about the information he gathered.

"I need to get Willow to do some snooping on him. Let's see what internet can find out about him." He thought and then just enjoyed relaxing and chatting with the group.

Buffy came back with Angel, she was looking little annoyed though. "Deadboy again? Dammit."

This was his first meeting with Angel since he got his powers. So he used [Observe] and then snickered getting Willows attention.

He leaned towards Willow and whispered, "Did you know Angel has a title... 'Deadboy'." Xander snickered some more... while Willow elbowed to shut him up.

He noticed Ford's response and interaction with Angel. There was hint of something, just hiding there.

He mumbled, "God, can we not go through the mysteries one of these days?' He didn't notice but both Buffy and Angel with their keen hearing, heard his words. Both of them put it out of their mind for now, reminding themselves to talk about it later.

Hanging back and keeping a lookout for Buffy, Xander wasn't surprised when Ford revealed the titbit about knowing Buffy as a slayer. He knew, Ford was hiding something. With only few months to live and he's here for school? In Sunnydale coincidences like this aren't good thing.

Xander would have believed him, if he had told his sob story to get laid by Buffy. Who wouldn't want to nail Buffy? "Ah... I better forget, delete and purge that last comment forever. With my luck, Buffy will have some mind reading ability and then I can kiss my sweet ass goodbye."

* * *

Xander was irritated when Willow told him about previous night. Angel had come to her and asked to check on Ford's record. Willow had invited him, a vampire into her room. Irritated, no, Xander was pissed at that.

He remembered Angel's information gathered from his [Observe] skill. Angel was strong, very strong. Hell, he was stronger than John Savage and that was saying something.

**STR –** 120 (80)

**VIT –** 135 (70)

**DEX –** 110 (72)

Romany had cursed Angelus with a soul, Angel had starved himself in some sort of redemption quest. This was the reason his stats were so low.

A vampire was a blood based demon. They get their power from the blood they drink. As vampires gets stronger as they age, blood is their source of vitality and strength.

For someone like Angel who had starved himself, he wasn't surprised that he only had -65 debuff just on his VIT.

Xander shuddered at the thought of how strong "The Master" was, if it scared even Angel. Of course, with vampires and their hierarchy, its understood, Angel was weaker than The Master. This made him wonder, how the Buffy defeated the master?

May be Slayer also get a boost? He had no idea, so he decided to consult Giles on this.

Another key information he had gained was, about the curse itself. The curse was temporary. So it was little worrying for him. Fighting Angelus in Sunnydale when Buffy's making googly eyes on him was not going to be easy. He'd need to get his stats up as fast as possible, possibly in 90+ range.

Coming back to Willow, he wasn't surprised to find out Ford wasn't enrolled in the school.

"It'd break Buffy's heart, if it turned out that Ford had some sort of plan for the Slayer. She doesn't get any break, does she?" Xander mumbled.

* * *

Later during the evening, Willow and Xander were following Buffy and Ford from some distance.

Willow was using one of the technique from Heart-Mind-Body Manual. Powering and using her Inner power, she could see far in distance or hear even a whisper from far away. Xander, whose inner-energy was low, could only see vague figures in the distance.

They were startled when they saw Buffy and Ford got attacked by few vampires. Both of them nodded to each other and started running towards them.

"Wills, you keep your focus on Ford. It'll take a minute or so for us to reach closer to them. Dammit, we have to invest in some sort of sniping skills."

Willow nodded in response and then gasped, "Xander, Ford let that vampiress go, he was asking about vampires and rest of it wasn't as clear to me. Why would he ask about vampires?"

"No idea, we need to keep an eye on that guy." They had slowed down as they noticed Buffy easily dealing with vampires.

Later, Willow, Angel and Xander had tracked down Ford's address to some sort of club. The moment they entered into the club, Xander realized what ford was upto.

Xander turned to Willow and asked, "So do you think, Ford is using these people as bait or rather bribe to get some vampire to do things for him? I bet 100 bucks on Vampire killing him after he feeds on those fools."

"No bet, but when you think about Ford's illness and then his association with vampire lovers. It doesn't paint a pretty picture. Worst thing is, we can't exactly tell Buffy about it?"

"Why not? We tell Buffy and she kicks him out of this town. Hell, both you and I could do it." Xander asked.

Willow chuckled with nervous tic, that Xander noticed, "I doubt it. I think Buffy still has hots for him. May be not as much as she has for Angel. And I have no idea how she'll respond to the idea of Ford dying or scheming something because she's a slayer."

Willow was silent for few seconds and then suddenly turned to him, "Do you think, Ford is serving a Slayer on platter for vampires?"

"No. Even he couldn't be that stupid. Slayer Vs almost dead guy. There's no chance." Xander countered.

"What about drugs?"

That last comment from Willow made both nervous.

* * *

Ford was wide-eyed at the scene. "This is so cool. I could totally live here."

Spike looked at him and then spoke loudly, "Do I have anyone on watch here? It's called security, people. Are you all asleep? Or did we finally find a restaurant that delivers?"

"I know who you are." Ford said.

"Yeah, I know who I am too. So what?" Spike was irritated and somewhat amused.

"I came looking for you. You are Spike, right? William the Bloody?"

Now the kid had pretty much signed his dead warrant.

"You've got a real death wish. It's almost interesting."

Just as Spike was about to step towards the kid, a vampiress entered into the lair and presented the book to him.

"Oh this is great. This'll be useful." He turned to Ford, "So how did you find me?"

"That doesn't matter. I've got something to offer you. I am pretty sure, this is the part where you take out a watch and say I've got thirty-second to convince you not to kill me? Its traditional."

Spike slams the book and started moving towards Ford, "I don't go much for tradition." He grabs Ford by throat and lifted him up.

"Dru, love, do you want a bite?"

Drusilla looked at the kid and sniffed with disdain, "Rat. That he is."

Spike grinned and turned to Ford who was scared out of his wits, "I don't like guys as much, but one shouldn't diss the presented food."

"Hang-on..." Ford stammered. "Listen I can give you the Slayer. A trade. I give you the Slayer and You turn me into vampire."

Spiked blinked at that thought, "Now you made me interested."

Drusilla interrupted their conversation, "No, kitten will burn the world. And burn, and burn."

She suddenly turned towards them, showing Spike the rare lucid look, "Kill him Spike. For me."

"Hang on... Listen, I can promise..." Ford couldn't speak anymore as Spike had started drinking from him. sudden lucidity from Drusilla surprised him, but he knew when to listen to her and when not to. Drusilla nodded to him, like she had read his mind and went back to play with her doll.

* * *

"Did, uh. Angel..."

"He told me everything." Buffy responded.

Xander heard Buffy's response to Willow and looked in askance at her.

"I doubt it; It doesn't paint a pretty picture. Did Willow tell you anything about what I got from Ford's information?"

Buffy shook her head in negative, and Xander massaged his temples.

"It really isn't good. Ford is dying from an illness, Brain tumor. He'd pretty much doped on the drugs, I think to keep the pain down or something."

Buffy was silent as she listened.

"We tracked Ford down to a Vampire lover's club. I or rather Willow thinks, he's serving these people up as bait and you as a prime attraction."

Buffy stiffened in surprise at that and looked up with misty eyes. "I...I have..." Willow pulled and hugged her. Three friends just sat there in silence and wondered about how their life was.

Later when Giles called them to join him in the library, they would get more news from him. When Giles was coming back from his date with Ms Calendar, he saw Ford's dead body. Sunnydale's finest had investigated and concluded that he died from falling on to the barbecue forks.

Xander pulled Giles aside to explain all of what they had investigated. However as things went, Ford was still a friend. She'll mourn him in her own fashion. They decided to support the girls, specially Buffy silently and as needed.

* * *

**Xander Harris (Lvl 29)**

**Title :** Battle-nut

**HP :** 3271

**MP :** 2386

**STR:** 51 (80.6) | **VIT:** 52 (82.2 | **DEX:** 52 (82.2) | **INT:** 52 (62.2) | **WIS:** 30 (29.4) | **LUK:** 8

**Status **: Slacker Status (-10 INT/WIS), Stoopid (-10 INT, -5 WIS).

**New Status Equipped** : Battle-nut +10 % in STR/VIT/DEX.

**Willow Rosenberg (Lvl 25)**

**HP :** 1613

**MP :** 2416

**STR:** 33 (48.5) | **VIT:** 33 (47.2) | **DEX:** 35 (50.1) | **INT:** 118 (180.5) | **WIS:** 50 (93.9)  
| **LUK:** 22

**Status:** 10% in STR/DEX/VIT/INT/WIS –Due to Heart-Mind-Body Skill.

* * *

**AN: I really didn't want to spend much time with Ford scene. So far, Ted is dealth with, Ford is gone.**

**Like I've already explained about Xander stats. Even though he lost his levels Inner Energy, he didn't lost any Experience points. His techniques are already activated and can be used,  
but its simply too expensive right now. By the end of chapter, Xander had raised his inner energy to level 10.**

**Xander got three skills for raising his STR/DEX/VIT to 50. One extra skill for all of when all these stats at 50 or above. Flurries had a STR/DEX/VIT requirement.**

**Willow reached 50 for her WIS. What should I give her as a skill for reaching 50? I am open to any ideas on this. Keep in mind, I want her to be Mage.**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: My beta is MIA. He was good and fast editor. I'll replace this chapter when I hear from him.**

[Dispel] Xander's voice intoned in the training dungeon.

**[Dispel initiates demonic tattoo removal]**

**[Dispel successfully broke demonic connection and tattoo]**

**[Dispel has increased by 1]**

"Phew," Xander wiped imaginary sweat from his forehead. "Man, this tattoo was hard to remove. Though thanks to that, my dispel is now at level 46."

Giles was looking at his clean forearm with emotions visible on his face. Xander let him come to terms with this new change and checked on what girls were doing.

Buffy was looking grumpy at this new instant dungeon. One of his instant dungeon now had the ability to remove buffs and statuses from users. Buffy was normal teenage girl and she was feeling the difference. Xander had to say, he was feeling weak without any of his buffs due to inner-energy.

Willow was showing Buffy her small arsenal of spells. She had bought few more books from Abyss auction. They had Xeroxed the books to burn them with skill absorbing.

He turned back to Giles and said, "Giles, do you want me to remove the bindings on your magic. That binding gives you huge debuff of 50 in your INT and WIS."

"No, Xander. This binding is connected with my post as a watcher. If I break them, It'd serve as automatic resignation from Watcher's Council. I don't think any other watcher will be able to handle three of you."

"Let me invite you then, If you don't want to increase your magical abilities, at least you will be able to boost your physical stats. [Invite Giles to Scoobies]"

After Giles accepted the invite, Xander gave him DVD full of martial arts and other skill books. Giles accepted and then frowned.

"Xander, I am not getting any prompt for learning the skills?"

Suddenly a new prompt with red color came into his view.

"I am getting new red prompt."

**[Error – Learning Skills]**

**You cannot learn and absorb these skills.**

**For More information Contact System Administrator.**

"System administrator? What the heck?" Xander boggled with this new prompt. This never happened to them. Buffy and Willow came over to see what was happening with them.

Xander explained the situation to both girls and then turned to Giles and said, "How about trying to contact System administrator?"

Giles clicked on [Contact System Administrator ] prompt.

**[Contacting System Administrator...]**

**Please wait for a while...**

...and the gang could now hear your typical 'on-hold' music. If this was a manga, they would have face-faulted, but they just gaped at the music.

**[System administrator is currently busy. Please try again**.]

Giles groaned and spoke, "Please tell me, if it is one of your pranks?"

"G-man, I promise, this is not something I can do. Though its funny to me." Xander chuckled.

"I hope, you are not perverting and infecting Gaia with your sense of humor Xander. I don't think people of this world would be able to handle that."

Both girls giggled at the mock glare Xander gave Giles. It was funny.

Xander wondered if Giles's past is the reason Gaia is not allowing him to learn and absorb skills thru the gaming system? They would have to test that, but first comes Buffy.

"Buff, did you learn trolls regeneration, Bronze Skin and other skills?"

"Yeah, Willow gave me those skill books including the Heart-Mind-Body Manual. I tested the skills I learned."

"Good, now in this dungeon you are now a normal teenager. So your STR/VIT/DEX is in early to mid-teens. Training here will help you boost your base stats. With 50+ Slayer Buff, soon you'll gain massive advantage."

"Here's what you need to do, Activate both Troll's Regeneration and Bronze Skill and then start working out. You have Parkour skill, using weighted shirts and other weights, you'll be able to work on your strength, vitality and dexterity. So... chop chop chop... get to it."

"Unfortunately my dungeon creation skill is not at high enough level for me to add time-dilation to this. So we have few hours before you have to patrol."

Buffy nodded and then grabbed Willow's arm and started walking as Willow explained her how to train and grind her new skills.

"You also learned Energy-Sensing skill. So while you do parkour, I'll be shooting different types of magic attacks at you."

Buffy interrupted, "Hang on a sec. ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MIND?"

Willow was sheepish as she explained, "I am not exactly hitting you, rather hitting close to you, Plus I can control the damage output of those spells. You have high enough MP and HP points, so you can spend time grinding these skills. With energy-sensing you'll be able to sense different type of magical attacks. Trolls regeneration will allow you to heal your body continuously and level it up."

Buffy glared at her and then sighed, "Ok what are you going to do?"

Willow pointed to the stack of A4 sheets.

"Besides elemental training, I have scribe skill that I bought from Abyss auction, It only needs pages and I can copy the content of any book."

She grinned, "We needed a skill like this. Thankfully some else thought of it and created a spell for it and was selling online at the auction site. I found some nice stuff online which we can use as skill books."

Buffy perked at this, "oh what else you bought?"

"I bought all the basic elemental magic, there are couple of rune magic books, scribe magic, Sith lighting magic, some basic enchantment and warding. Anything beyond basic was freaking costly, I already spent like 10,000 dollars on all of this."

"Wow, that's a huge list. When do you think you'll practice all of this?" Buffy wondered and asked her.

"In real world, there are two basic ways to get stronger. One is you pick a skill and master it as much as possible. Second is almost opposite to this, you pick many skills complementing each other and then learn them as best possible. You won't master any of those, but the sheer number of skills often gives you variety of response."

Buffy hummed, "Do you think that's a good idea?"

Willow grinned and then asked, "Then how about slayer? Slayers have a huge amount skills that they know. You can go from a low-level fighter to medium level just by learning as many skills as understanding some counters to them."

"With first method of learning one style. You actually practice your style and then think how you'll counter other styles or skills with moves from your style. Even if focus is on learning just one style or skill, they have pretty good understanding of styles they are trying to counter. It's simply a learning process."

"With my INT and WIS stats, I simply opted for having as many variety of skills as possible."

Buffy nodded in response and then started warming up by practicing her basic cheer leading routines. Willow went back to scribing different books. Just thinking of destroying those books while learning it made her shudder with horror.

* * *

After 4 hours of practice, Buffy didn't know how she felt. With using her skills, she removed her fatigue, so most of what she felt was pretty much mental fatigue.

Xander checked Buffy's stat and she had gained 2 points in STR/VIT/DEX each, that was good news. It was pity, if they it was a weekend, she would have gained about 10-12 points. May be, if Buffy wouldn't mind practicing all night then they could seriously gain some serious boost. He had 8:1 time-dilated dungeon, which they could use for resting after the practice.

Xander turned towards and Giles and used [Observe] skill. Giles had also gained 2 points in his STR. It was his lowest score at eighteen now. Giles had used barbell and spent all the time lifting heavy weights.

"Hmm... maybe if we take lighter weights and have Giles do Jumping squats, it'd grinned STR and DEX... what about adding frog jumps, I wonder if it'd add VIT too." Xander mumbled and wondered.

It was pity that Giles couldn't learn some of the skills they had now. It would have made it so much easier for them.

"Giles, take the copy of Heart-Mind-Body skill and go through it. If you were able to learn that skill, you'll be able to use chi/inner-energy than pure magic. What do you think?"

"Sounds good. But I wonder how effective learning that would be?"

Xander shrugged, "It'll take time, it's pretty sweet skill. Willow is our main mage, so it'd be stupid for her to play healer of the group for long-term. I suspect slayer buff would allow Buffy to heal anyone else and she's our main tank + damage dealer. It's same for me, So far I can only heal myself and my healing skill is not at par with Heart-Mind-Body skill. We need a dedicated healer in the group."

"Hmmm... Are you thinking of recruiting someone else?"

"Yeah, I have some plans, if it panned out, we'll have better than decent support."

Xander and Giles walked over where girls were practicing their skills. After discussing things with Willow, Xander had used all of his left over points. He ended up putting 50 points in his INT (it still had -20 debuff which he was hoping, he'll soon get rid of), 10 points in WIS and 3 points in LUK.

The idea was simple, he was turning into a tank for the group. Most of his skills used mana and more mana he had, longer he'd be able to fight. Second, it also opens up more magical options to him. With 100% regen of mana, again, he'll be able to fight longer.

Being at Level 29 now, he should be able to get some more points as he levels up. First Buffy's base stats needed to be higher enough. It'll give both Willow and him some time to level up some of their main skills.

"Wills, how is it going? I noticed Buffy gained 2 points in each of her base stats."

Buffy perked up hearing that. Xander chuckled and nodded to her, "Yeah, You did. So this training should be able to raise your stats around 50+ easily enough. Both Wills, I and Giles will be going through something similar?"

Giles interrupted him, "Do you really think I should be jumping around with you kids?"

"G-man, don't say stuff like that." Xander said and then smirked. "Think about how Ms Calendar is going to appreciate 'New G-man'." Xander waggled his eyebrows as Giles almost blushed at that statement.

"Huh, Mr. English have decent poker face.", Xander thought and then turned towards girls.

"Wills?"

"Xander, I am leveling up my Earth Elemental." Willow babbled as she pointed at her Earth spirit 'Noume'. "I was also working on my Scribe skills. It's now at level 12. We have tons of stuff to go through. Most of it is magic based."

Giles perked up at the mention of books, "Oh, what do you have here, Willow?"

"I spent about 10,000 dollars on this. Most of it is basic instruction of warding, runes and so on. Did you know anything beyond basic introduction on runes is at least 10 times as costly?"

Giles nodded, "Yes, that's true. Most of the runic magic we have here is based on pictograph format. What you have to remember is that runic magic came to this dimension after some demon clans went native. Even though humans have researched runic magic for thousands of years, it's still an unknown language to us."

"Even the demon clans lost this skill in many ways. So what we are left is pictograph format of runes. Humans though adopted and created their own brand of runic magic, yet it's in some form incomplete. What you have in hands of basic Runic Instruction. It should be filled with thousands of runic figures along with its basic idea."

Willow's eyes lighted up at the thought of learning something new, "Yes, Giles, This book has about 10,000 pictograph and their base definition. But there is nothing about how to use. Why?"

"Like I explained earlier, most of this magic is lost even to demon clans. If I have to explain it, it's like you have in your hands a form of alphabet to a brand new language. You have no idea how to combine these alphabets and create words and sentences. This is why any higher level instruction on runic magic is very costly. It's often jealously hoarded by families and clans and only passed down to their heirs."

Xander wondered out loud, "What about intermediate level in Abyss auction?"

Giles shook his head in negative, "Nothing high enough. It should give you basic premier on how to combine different sigils together and warnings of their uses."

Xander looked thoughtful at this and then perked up, "Wills, do you think we can create some sort of computer program which can catalog all of this and then go through every permutations on these sigils?"

"Shouldn't be too hard, but even then we'd have no idea if it works or not?"

"Don't worry about it, we'll think of something. Linguists often look at dead languages and then somehow combine to form some sense of them. So I think it should be possible."

Giles heard and warned them, "Let me warn you about activating any sigil or combination of it. It should be ok to compute but printing it out or trying to speak or trace it should be avoided."

All the kids nodded at his warning. Though Xander's mind was running hundreds of miles per hour right now. Shaking his thoughts away, Xander asked Buffy

"Buff, listen I am planning to train you in any time available to you. We should get your basic stats up. That'd mean even after patrolling the streets."

Buffy was horrified at the thought of this, "What about resting Xander? Even with slayer perks, I get tired."

"Don't worry about it. Around 5 am or so I'll activate time-dilated dungeon and then we can rest for 7-8 hours. I'll be also leveling up my dungeon skills meantime if I want to add time-dilation to this dungeon. Even an extra hour will help."

Buffy groaned, but she also understood his reasoning. With Xander's recent scare with hunters, he was only thinking of getting stronger. She stood up and decided to freshen up, with her keen senses, she knew she wasn't in good shape.

"Ok, I'll do it. Now I need to take a shower and freshen up." Buffy nodded and grabbed Willow's arm and dragged her along.

* * *

Scoobies were walking along, discussing random stuff. Suddenly Buffy titled her head to side and then jumped towards the noise only she could hear. Xander and Willow watched her leave and immediately came out from dark alley.

"Sheesh, she's venting our her frustration on vamps today. Me thinks, she didn't like my idea of more training." Xander thought and chuckled with a nervous tic.

Buffy came towards them and then said, "You know, with that Energy sensing skill, I can now sense Vampires with far more accuracy."

Xander looked at her, "Oh yeah, what's the change then?"

"When I absorbed that skill. It said to me [Slayer Sense Skill Upgraded]. Now I think all of my five senses are giving me some information which is really hard to describe."

Willow nodded, "Yeah when Xander and I learned this skill, we had the same problem. We still have some problem with it when we sense something new."

Xander nodded at Willow's response, "That's true. I can now easily sense both of you. But I think our range is far lower than yours. Good, now you are mystic detector, Buff 2.0"

Both Willow and Xander chuckled while Buffy glared at him.

She massaged her temples, "I think because of slayer perk, I am getting more feedback. I think I can sense around hundred meters in radius. Hmm.. maybe more."

Xander's eyes almost bulged out, "Really? Our range is about ten – fifteen meters at most. Right Willow?"

Willow nodded in hurry, "Yeah, Our skill is low-level, I think our range will improve as we level it up. Tell me how is it you are feeling now?"

"I can sense you two like huge bonfire. When you were throwing magic at me, Your magical arrow and spinning arrow, I could tell they were different, just something different in their make-up I think."

Buffy's head was tilted to her side as she was thinking about her training with Willow, "I could also sense Xander's magic when he was working with Giles. I know you removed something vile from Giles."

Buffy narrowed her eyes at Xander, "Are you going to tell us about it?"

Xander shrugged, "Giles's story. If he wants to share it with you, he'll. Don't worry I think he'll tell you guys later."

She nodded and then continued her introspection at her new energy sensing skill, "Vamps are something metallic plus they itch in my nose."

Xander and Willow looked at each other at her vague description. Their skill wasn't that good. Plus how they were interpreting the signals are going to be different from Buffy. So they couldn't help her through this.

Buffy introspection was interrupted and she turned sharply and started looking towards some dark section of the alley. It was disturbing to her senses.

Buffy shouted, "Who is it? Come out and I'll dust you faster."

Xander said, "Err.. Buffy that's not how you threaten someone."

Buffy scoffed, but didn't took her eyes off the alley. After few seconds of silence, now they could see a silhouette getting stronger... Someone was coming out.

"Wow, he must have guts." Xander said as he looked at the figure.

"Buffy, how are you?"

Scoobies stopped as they recognized the voice. Xander groaned internally. It was Angel, Mr. stalker.

Buffy perked up and then her brows frowned sensing something distasteful.

"Hey Angel." She greeted Angel.

"Xander, Willow." Angel greeted both of them without even glancing in their direction.

"Bastard." Xander thought.

"Buffy, are you busy these days? I haven't seen much of you." Angel asked Buffy.

Buffy stammered, "ah..h... It was Giles, after Halloween episode, he's little strict with training and stuff."

Angel looked at her curiously and then just nodded. Xander wondered for a second, if Vampires could smell lies and stuff?

Whatever reason, Buffy was behaving oddly. Even Angel noticed that. The group went through their patrols dusting any vamps unlucky enough to bump into them. For some reason, Xander couldn't push Buffy's behavior out from his mind.

* * *

After the patrol, as planned, Buffy sneaked out for extra training. Moreover, she had something to talk with Xander. She ran towards Willow's house at full speed.

It was Willow who greeted her at the entrance. She asked if Xander was already here.

"What happened Buffy? You were spaced out even during the patrol, today?"

"Don't know, Wills. I need to talk to both of you."

Both girls walked into the drawing-room and spotted Xander who was meditating.

Xander opened his eyes as he sensed them coming closer to him.

"Hey girls... Buffy you look serious?"

Buffy looked troubled, this made both Xander and Willow little concerned about her.

"I don't know. Earlier when we were talking about Sensing... Right?"

Xander nodded her to continue. "Yeah, what you sensed?"

"I have no idea. You know when I sense, it was odd... I could tell it was vampire but there was another uneasy feeling I had."

Willow said, "But didn't that turned out to be Angel?"

"Yeah, When Angel came closer, I could feel it. It almost made me lose my dinner. I think it was some sort of magic. Something like yours, but corrupted? Dirty? I have no idea how to describe."

Both were startled at hearing this. Xander thought for a second, "When I checked Angel's information. I found basic information about him."

"You know he's cursed. Right?"

Buffy nodded, "Yeah, Angel told me about that."

Xander rolled his eyes, "Of course, he would have told you that. What he forget to add was Vampire Angelus was cursed by Romany tribe for killing their people."

"Romany used a Soul curse on him. No idea on the details but it's called Curse for a reason. Well Soul curse. It was used to Curse Angelus. How angel came about? The details are little fuzzy on it. Though I did some independent research."

"From what I can guess, Romany raised Angel's soul and cursed Angelus with a soul with Angel in driver's seat."

"My guess is that you are sensing the foul magic of soul curse."

Buffy still had a troubled look on her face.

"It's barbaric." Xander spat those words with disgust on his face. "They pulled a human soul from afterlife and then cursed a vampire with it."

Both girls were surprised at anger present in his voice.

"What do you mean Xander?"

"I talked with Giles about this. Giles theorized, that if Romany had used anything other than human soul, the curse would've broken easily. With a human soul, it's huge well of power. They probably used soul as power source to power the curse."

"If somebody had pulled my soul into a vampire body, I'd have butchered them and then dusted myself."

Both girls stared at his furious face and vehement expression and then decided to change the topic. Xander had a mad-on when it came to vampires or anything related to them.

Buffy turned to Willow and asked, "Willow are you going to create new elemental contracts today?"

Willow's eye shone in response, "Yes, I am planning to acquire both Water and Air elemental."

"What about Void?" Xander asked.

"oh, Void is not the fifth element. It's ether or magic. The element that was believed to fill all space above the sphere or the moon and to compose stars and planets."

Xander scratched his head, "Man that definition sounds confusing."

Willow shrugged in response and picked up Ether elemental book, "Here use observe on this."

Xander used [Observe] on the book -

[**Element of Ether]**

**If you have an affinity to Ether, you can grow as a mage, druid or even sage.**

**Magical affinity + 10% passive boost in mana pool.**

**Actively recover mana + 50%, magical damage/defense +25%, -15% mana cost.**

**Warning : Not aligned with other elements.**

"Wow, those are massive stat boost. I want it." Xander drooled over the stats, even Willow looked mighty impressed when presented stats in such way.

"Shall we get to it, girls?" Xander looked at them. Both girls nodded.

Xander and the gang started preparing for Elemental summoning rituals. Xander already had Earth elemental, so this time, he created a ritual circle for Fire. Willow started with Ether first.

Both were successful in making new contracts with their elemental. But when Xander tried Ether, he found out, he did not have affinity with the element. He pouted, ranted, cussed and made mess of stuff for not getting the contract.

Willow, whereas was able to activate all the elemental contracts. After that they decided to train seriously.

* * *

For last couple of days, Buffy and gang spent every second of their free time training. Getting beefed up, as Xander put it. Buffy now could feel the difference in her strength, speed and energy levels.

In little over 3 days, She had gained a total of 12 points in each of her major stats STR/VIT/DEX.

Both Willow and Xander told her, she gained so much because she has low base stats. Willow was closer to Slayer stats already, Xander had surpassed her old stats. Currently, both Willow and her together were sparring with Xander. He was now that good.

Sparring was fun for her. She could go all out without any fear of hurting anyone. With their healing ability, their sparring was pretty darn close to fight these days. Giles almost blew his gasket when he saw them sparring for first time.

She hadn't met angel during this time. The feeling of nausea that she felt close to him, was something she didn't know how to handle. Training with the gang was good excuse for her now. She didn't want to think about that.

Soul curse, Xander's explanation on that pissed her off. Romany, in their quest for revenge, had cursed both vampire and human for the demon's fault. She shuddered at the thought of that tribe.

She shook her head to clear away these ewwy thoughts and looked at Willow who was arguing with Giles. Arguing? She looked closer, well it was more of a heated discussion about books. Well, heated in Willow-terms.

"Where was Xander?" She wondered.

* * *

Xander was sitting with Andrew and Jonathan. Both of the nerds were helping in his quest to turn theory material into skill books. He looked at the notes in front of him.

It was business building notes. Marketing, sales, persuasion. Very detailed, how to notes, with action steps, mind maps and what not. Frankly both went above and beyond what he had asked.

The moment he had touched the notes, he got a skill prompt.

"So, Xander, business notes. What kind of business are you looking into?" Jonathan asked.

Xander responded as he looked over the notes, "Willow and I are working on tech based firm. She'll handle the programming and technical part of it and I am thinking about marketing PR and all that stuff."

"Hmm.. Willow is an élite when it comes to programming. Though, when it comes to hardware and MacGyver-up tech stuff, Andrew and I are élite." Jonathan bragged.

Xander chuckled, "Yeah, Willow told me that too. I am thinking of hiring you guys in the future. Anyways, gotta go, Here what I owe you two." Xander pulled money out of his pocket and gave it to them.

"Thanks man, Do you think we can help you guys with something?" Jonathan asked him.

"What do you mean, Jono?"

"Whatever you do along with Buffy and that English librarian."

Xander looked at them and then sighed, He sat down and created an instant dungeon silently. They were sitting alone, so chances of both noticing it was very low.

"Hmm... I know you two are intelligent. Tell me what's your theory?" Xander looked seriously into their eyes and commanded.

Both of them gulped and felt like those eyes were judging them.

"We... We realized, there is some sort of cover-up going on. On massive level, I mean. Adults, Police, Doctors and even the mayor's administration is involved in this cover up." John said.

That didn't sound good to Xander, "Explain."

"You see, Andrew and I were discussing. If you remember from primary school, You, Willow, Cordelia, Andrew and I are only kids left from that class."

"So what, families move, if they get a promotion or new job. It happens everyday."

Jonathan shook his head in negative, "No, you don't understand. We went back through newspaper archive. We compared with our class list from primary school. There were far too many accidents or missing reports. The keywords are "Barbecue forks" and "gangs on PCP". Its like some sort of code word, the administration knows and use."

"I think all three of you are some sort of vigilante group, handling these issues." Jonathan concluded.

"What about magic? Talk about magic." Andrew interrupted with a shriek. Jonathan was startled and gave a withering glare to him.

Xander was also startled at the interruption but outwards, he was calm and didn't say anything, looking forward to Jono's response.

Jonathan sighed, "Yes, magic. Thank you Andrew, without your help I'd have forgotten about it." He glared at Andrew for interrupting him. "You know Occam's razor and all. I think the answer to most of it is something magical."

Xander chuckled, "Impressive. You guys must have spent some time on researching this. So what do you think we do?"

"My guess is you are some kind of vigilante group, fighting against all those magical cases."

"I bet there are aliens..." Andrew interrupted once again. "I don't want to be probed by them."

This time the glares he received from both Jonathan and Xander and shrunk himself down to hide.

Xander thought for a second and decided to come clean with these guys. They were old buddies.

"This town is built on of dimensional anomaly. We call this anomaly, The Hellmouth. What you need to know is this hellmouth is a sort of gateway to other dimensions where demons live. Right now the gateway is locked tight, But it still creates an after effect. That after effect attracts all kind of demonic creatures into this town."

"Whoa" Both Jonathan and Andrew were wide-eyed from the truth.

Xander started to explain all he could about demonic activity in Sunnydale. How they were fighting it. He held back on slayer, because it was not his secret to tell. But as a proof, he showed them his instant dungeon.

Even though he knew both since they were kids, he didn't want to give out much of information on the group. Even though he could see fear and apprehension on their faces, they wanted to help out. This was good news, he could off load some of researched based stuff to start with. He also gave them some advice on precautions and how to avoid being another number in Sunnydale stats.

* * *

It was evening, as Xander, Willow and Buffy were chatting and just relaxing from all the training they had done in last three days. Of course, the results were visible, even for Giles, who had gained five points in his STR, three points in VIT and two points in DEX. If Giles wasn't busy with working out, he'd have worn out his glasses by rubbing them out.

Xander and Buffy, both immediately went alert, looking for changes around them. Willow was vary with how both were behaving but she could feel her hands sweating.

"All of you, COME OUT!" Xander shouted using a bit of inner energy, giving his voice surround effect.

They waited for few moments and then men started coming out. They were wearing black leather clothes right out of some B-grade token villains. From the corner of his eyes, Xander could see Buffy rolling her eyes and muttering something about mooks ruining her day.

Letting his [Observe] skill work its magic and with high INT, he processed all the information on the gang.

"Black moon gang?" You could hear the ridiculousness in his voice, "If they think we are part of pretty guardian sailor senshi, I am burying them alive."

Buffy lost it at that and end up spraying the drink she had... Of course with slayer senses, she heard him muttering. Fortunately for the scoobies, she didn't spray on them. She snorted unlike a lady should.

"There's no way, I am putting you in mini skirt and heels, Xander. You don't have the legs for it." Buffy teased Xander and give him a look over. "Spandex on another hand is good possibility."

She could feel Willow's glare and decided to beg later.

"Three strong, six meh-meh" She muttered low enough for only Xander and Willow to hear. Both knew, she was referring to the ones still hiding.

Xander looked at Buffy and Willow and said, "Maximum level is 34, forty-four of them. Buffy break their legs and knock them out, they have some sort of both magical and physical damage reduction armors. Avoid getting hit as possible."

Both girls nodded and moved. Xander decided to use Wudang;s acupoint sealing techniques to immobilize these men. Moving swiftly from on one man to another, he started sealing their acupoints by sending his inner-energy into acupoints.

In a 24 hour, chi in our body goes through from every acupoint at least twice. Redirecting that chi forcefully with inner-energy, you can either hurt someone or immobilize them. Even with Low energy levels, Xander's immobilization technique will force them in that state for another 12 hours, as body goes through its natural chi direction process, their acupoints will get unsealed automatically.

Xander didn't wish to maim or kill anyone in the group. He spied from the corner of his eyes Buffy breaking legs and knocking the hell out of them. Like always she was poetry in motion. Willow was also quite efficient in knocking out minion level thugs. She had trained hard and sparred with them regularly, it showed in her movement and skills.

"MOVE XANDER." Buffy's shout was sudden, and he moved away by activating Cloud ascending ladder and had to shield his face from the debris which rose from the blast.

He was horrified to see that those hidden people had killed their own men. Now it seems like they came out when they realized that even with numbers, Xander and the group was just too strong.

"Level 52, 48 and 46 and rest of the six are in 38-40 range." Xander mumbled so that Buffy and Willow could hear. He couldn't see much of their information, maybe some way of hiding information?

"You..." Xander spat those words in disgust. "You killed your own men. Just to get a shot at me?"

One of the bald one scoffed, while other just sneered at him in response.

"Kill the slayer, other girl has magic, good enough to sell. Leave the gamer to us." It was bald one who said those words.

Xander had enough; he knew there would be no negotiating with these fools. Before anyone from the group could move, Xander was behind one of the high level opponent.

**[Nine Yin White Bone Claw]**

Activating the Yin divine skill and then adding [White bone Claw], Xander's speed was increased many times. None of them realized that he had moved, until the claw broke through the scalp and pierced into the head.

**[Absorbed 100 HP]**

**[Absorbed 500 MP]**

**[-500 HP due to Nine Yin White bone claw]**

**[Nine Yang activated and Improves Health regeneration]**

Xander jumped back in between Buffy and Willow. As he jumped, he moved and broke the spines of two of the low-level minions.

"Getting rid of the wizard is most important in any games. Double, if he's magically strong." Xander said in a voice that sent chills in spine of the girls.

"I would have negotiated with you fools. But, you threatened my girls."

Both Willow and Buffy looked at him at that announcement. Willow was reminded of the time, when Xander had broken legs of one the jocks who had harassed her and Jesse. Xander would gladly take any insults or bullying, but when it came to bullying Willow and Jesse, people learned not to. Even Cordelia never went far with her insults.

"Xander." Willow whispered.

"Now I realize, there is more to attacking me than just rewards. SPEAK!" Last word was forced out with inner energy. Xander was planning to use and delay the fight as much as possible. Even though he used White bone claw technique for barely a second or two, it still injured him. Right now with Nine Yang Divine Skill running through his body and healing him.

Black moon gang had lost all their confidence after seeing one of their masters killed just like that. Now even the bald ugly one was vary of Xander, he knew he was strong, but still not in The Gamer's league. With their mage dead, they had lost their major trump card.

With injuring other two members injured, Xander had unknowingly defeated another one of their trump card. Those six members were chosen specially for this mission. If they had fought either Buffy or Willow, they would have easily overpowered and killed them.

Black moon gang wanted to injure the girls and make Xander submit to them. They had used this technique to successfully overpower many opponents stronger than Xander.

Both of the masters looked at each other and nodded in signal. They were fast, they knew they had lost but they wanted to die on their terms, by killing the girls. It was a combination technique aimed at Willow.

Xander had guessed their intention and moved to intercept the attack or help Willow. Buffy was moving towards the masters to stop to intercepting them. Xander had killed one of them already; she didn't want to dirty his hands any more by killing humans.

She yelled out a horrified scream as she saw that attack connect. This was the same attack that had killed the minions earlier. Her legs almost buckled under her as she saw the destruction.

Fear, anguish, frustration and then fury rose out of her. She screamed in furious rage and then struck the master close to her. She was a slayer, boosted by mystical methods and then some. Her attack struck true and broke the neck.

After killing her first opponent, she moved. The slayer in her was a huntress and a real predator, and slayer would often play cat and mouse game with her prey. This time, there was nothing that could be found in her movement.

Getting closer to the master, she used her elbow to attack and pretty much caved his chest. Next attack broke the knee closer to her and then she used as her knee as a last finishing attack. All of this happened so fast, other members of the gang could do nothing just stare at her.

Her knee was stopped and she was pushed back lightly.

"Buff, both Willow and I are okay." She heard Xander's voice, bringing her mind out of that furious haze.

Xander then turned towards the master and struck, breaking his spine.

"You four, take him and leave. If you attack again, I'll kill you." Xander had a furious look now. By now, Willow also came out dusting herself. She came and hugged Buffy as she watched minions of Black moon gang scurry taking their master.

"How?" Buffy could barely ask.

"That attack had far more power and speed than previous one. I was going to push Willow out-of-the-way, but she pulled miracle out of her... err bag." Xander said and then chuckled at the glare he received from Willow.

"Sheesh, her response was fast. I didn't expect her earth elemental to move so fast. She not only raised heavy earth in front of me but dug out a tunnel." Xander praised Willow's skill.

Willow grinned in response, "Not exactly. I am mage, mages are all about preparation. I was already digging tunnel below us the moment we confronted them. Noume, my earth spirit also had condensed some parts which I could have used as a defensive fall back. That was the rock which defended us."

Buffy couldn't hold it anymore. She hugged Willow and Xander, and then started crying.

* * *

"It seems like not only young master is strong, but has capable allies. Did you have fun kiddo?"

* * *

**Xander Harris (Lvl 29)**

**Title :** Battle-nut

**HP :** 3360.6

**MP :** 3538.2

**STR:** 57 (89.5) |** VIT:** 58 (91.1) | **DEX:** 58 (91.6) | **INT:** 101 (169.9) | **WIS:** 40 (44.2) | **LUK:** 30

**Status :** Slacker Status (-10 INT/WIS), Stoopid (-10 INT, -5 WIS).

**New Status Equipped** : Battle-nut +10 % in STR/VIT/DEX. (STR/VIT/DEX – 98/99.7/100 during Battle)

**Willow Rosenberg (Lvl 25)**

**HP :** 1863

**MP :** 3200.8

**STR:** 41 (61.5) | **VIT:** 42 (61.3) | **DEX:** 42 (61.3) | **INT:** 118 (184.1) | **WIS:** 50 (97.5) | **LUK:** 22

**Status:** Heart-Mind Body Skill to STR, VIT, DEX, INT and WIS +10% Passive / +30% Active

**New Status Acquired/Equipped :** Elemental Witch – +30% damage, - 30% mana use for elemental magic.

**Buffy Summers (Lvl 32)**

**HP :** 2364

**MP :** 1426

**STR:** 25 (77.5) | **VIT:** 24 (76.4) | **DEX:** 24 (79.7) |** INT:** 16(7.6) | **WIS:** 8 (8.8) |** LUK:** 21

**Status:** Slayer +50 to STR, VIT, DEX, HP/MP Regen 5%

Heart-Mind Body Skill to STR, VIT, DEX, INT and WIS +10% Passive / +30% Active

* * *

**AN : Did Buffy got her first kill?**

**How could I do that?**

**I was writing that fighting scene and it kept jumping at me. At first, my plan was to get Willow her first kill and then have both Xander/Willow end up in bed raising up their relationship level (Sorry no lemons for you guys. No, Xander is not going to bed Buffy by helping her through the shock. Willow might, but who knows)**

**Anyways, during the fight I realized, even with improvements, Willow will be one character who'd look weak to the masters. They knew their chances of hitting Both Xander and Buffy weren't that good, but Willow was fair game. Xander behaved quite protectively, so it gave some idea about his character. He would have brooded over Willow's death more than Buffy.**


	8. Magical Contracts

"It seems like not only young master is strong, but has capable allies. Did you have fun observing the fight, kiddo?"

He turned around and asked the young girl.

"Yeah, he's strong, possibly stronger than both of us."

"Why the heck daddy wanted us to keep an eye on him? Let's just kill him and go home…"

She complains and turned and kicked him in the shins.

"And you, stop stroking your silly fake Chinese beard, you are black for god sakes."

"That's racism, ojou-chan." He said with a grin on his face. "And I am stroking my Japanese beard right now…"

By now, her eyes were spitting fire at him. She wondered why the hell daddy had to send this Japanese maniac with her. She could gather any information all by herself.

"Would you mind telling me, why are we here, you, you fake Japanese?"

"Sheesh, this man has been watching too much anime." She thought.

"Well, as you said, this guy is stronger. Your father wants to gather information on him. Having this level of power as an enemy is something he doesn't want or need."

"So, why not just kill him?"

He looked at her with a look that made her feel like a foot tall. "Did you not notice it?"

"Notice it? What do… oh, you mean them…?"

"Yeah, this fight had far too many observers. With your powers, you should have noticed them too."

She harrumphed, "Of course, I felt them. They were just lackeys… low on the totem pole."

"That's where you are wrong, ojou. I recognized a couple of the observers. That's the main reason we can't kill him. Right now everyone wants his power with their side. Any kind of action, whether its affirmative or not, will have long term consequences."

"I know that, I am not stupid. But don't you think it'd be much better to remove him before he gets beyond any of us capability to handle?"

She looked thoughtful, "Didn't he got his power during Halloween? It's not even a month since he got his powers. He's way too strong."

He chuckled, "Did you know he killed John Savage?"

"What? He killed that ogre? Does that mean, everyone here at today's fight were observing him for…"

"Yup, you got that right. None of the observers are strong enough to stop him, with those girls at his back, it's even more difficult. That's not even counting if other factions try to get his favor. It's a freaking stalemate on the Hellmouth for now."

"No one wants to get all of this out in open. Well, at least, until they have some of the strongest agents with them."

There was an excited look in her eyes, "You are telling me, this place is going to be battlefield."

He flicked her in the forehead, "Control your blood lust, Dani-chan. Though you are right, it's not going to be pretty."

* * *

Xander woke up and found himself wrapped around a warm body. Startled, he looked and noticed Buffy and Willow sleeping on the bed. It all came back to him in a rush. Just a few hours ago, Buffy had ended up killing a human. A hunter to be precise, but still a human. For the Slayer, this was new and she had freaked the fuck out.

Both Willow and him, ended up consoling her for the better part of a couple of hours. It was good that he had created time-dilated dungeon. He observed the surroundings and noticed, it's been only one hour since that event. With a ratio of 1:8 time dilation, they were able to console Buffy.

She had pretty much went to sleep because of exhaustion from the event. Both Willow and him, who were hugging and consoling her, pretty much followed her.

He looked at Willow and found, she was also awake and looking at him. She was mouthing something to him. Well, with all of his powers, he didn't have any, related to lips reading.

"You can speak, Wills. I am awake."

Willow was startled and meeped at Buffy's voice.

"Hey Buffy,… you are awake… ah… "

She wanted to ask her if she was alright, but knew that was a stupid question. It seemed Buffy read her intention and hugged her in response.

Buffy sighed and asked "What time is it?"

"We are in a time-dilated dungeon, So its' about 7:30 PM." It was Xander who responded to her answer.

"So we have time to freshen up"

"Yeah."

Even though they wanted to get up and leave, but none of the Scoobies moved from their position. They stayed there for some time until the silence was broken by Buffy.

"Xander, for your sake, I hope that's a stake I am feeling up behind?"

Hearing this, Xander sputtered a response and Willow was wide-eyed. It was then Xander really noticed their position. He was spooning Buffy and she was spooning Willow on the bed.

"Ar… it's stake, Buff."

There was now tension in the room.

Suddenly he felt something or rather someone, grab his crotch and Willow proudly stating, "It's a stake, Buffy".

Buffy was looking at Willow with wide eyes. She never expected Willow to do something totally out of her character.

Then Willow babbled true to her fashion, "Yup, it's a stake, it's nothing like penis shaped thing that can get you pregnant and its not hot at all."

She chuckled, releasing the tension in the room as Xander mumbled in response. "Gee, thanks Wills."

"Yeah, I have to beware of penis shaped stakes." Buffy chuckled some more.

After his own incident, he had noticed Willow was more open with him. Even though she retained her shy nature, she often hugged him longer and more frequently touching him. This was, he was also surprised by her boldness and little embarrassed with her babble.

Sheesh, it's not like he's used to feeling pretty girl's ass on his crotch, he couldn't do anything besides getting an erection.

"Damn, I am sleeping with two pretty girls and I can't even brag about it."

Xander mumbled and got an elbow into his stomach.

"Damn slayer hearing."

He looked in Buffy's eyes, instead of catching any sort of repulsion or may be anger, he found amusement in her eyes. She turned and laid her head on WIllow's neck.

"Wills, I don't feel like getting up." She complained.

"Well, we can stay here for few hours. Your mom knows you were with us and we don't need to meet Giles today."

Willow said and then whispered to her, "and I need to go to the loo."

She got up, leaving both of them in bed.

"You know, Xander, I noticed you didn't move away." Buffy asked him.

Xander stammered a little and then said "Well, you know, if a pretty girl doesn't mind you on her ass, it's been foolish to miss the chance."

Once again, the silence in the room was deafening with the obvious "What the fuck?" in the air.

"Ah, Sorry, that came out wrong."

Buffy this time turned and looked at him, "Oh no, that came out alright."

She grabbed the pillow, tried to smother him and it delved into the sort of mud-wrestling cum pillow fighting.

Which was what Willow came back to find both of them fighting like five years old.

* * *

She looked at the bragging jock and almost rolled her eyes. Even if Bronze was the most happening place for teenagers in Sunnydale, it was still a hovel compared to her standards.

She spied Scoobies entering the upper floors. She noticed Xander walking in front and crowd parting to his presence.

"Yeah, he's changed." She confirmed her thoughts. "He never used to have that kind of effect. It's something like when Buffy's pissed off."

This was the walk of a predator, surprising her that Xander joined that group.

"Freaks." She mumbled.

"You say something Cordelia." Jock turned to him.

"Eh? I'll be back later, Jake. Girls stuff." She said to him and walked off.

"I am Arnold, not Jake." Jock said. Like she'd care, she scoffed at that.

As she was walking, she could see Xander completely. With some tips on clothing, he now looks like a dish. She also noticed other girls are noticing him. She always knew he had the potential… It was a pity he was wasting it away with that redheaded freak.

"Oh, what's this? Am I really seeing this?" She looked at the group curiously and then chuckled.

"It's seem like Ms. Blondie is also interested in him. What would do now, Willow?"

As she walked closer to the group and was greeted by Buffy.

As usual, she scoffed, rolled her eyes and moved on without giving any response.

"Aren't you ball of happy sunshine, Cordy?" Xander chuckled. "You know, I have seen couple of girls wearing something similar, but I think it suits you best."

That glare he received would have melted him on the spot if he cared about her. Tweaking Cordy was his favorite past time and if the stifled giggles, he heard from his girls was the response, he'd do it again in a heartbeat.

To his surprise, he didn't receive any comments from her barbed tongue.

He also noticed the sway of her hips as she was moving away from him. If he didn't have a gamer's mind, he was sure he'd be in deep hypnotic trance ready to serve that divine ass any way she wanted.

Grrr….

He noticed Willow growling at him. It was Buffy, who saved his bacon this time.

"Ah, he can't help it, that's one fine ass."

Both of them turned to look at her… Buffy raised her eyebrow in response, "What? There is no doubt, she's pretty."

Xander chuckled and waggled his eyebrows, "Buff, what would Angel have to say to that?"

There was a flicker of grimace to that statement, which made Xander a little curious about it; But he let it go for now.

"Girls, you sense any fangs here?"

Buffy just shrugged, "Nope, amazing, I would notice some dumb enough to come here."

"I can easily sense this floor… so it's hard to say about down below or anyone outside. Buffy's range is far better."

"True that. Anyways, you girls grab those seats and I'll get something to drink."

Girls nodded and then moved towards the seats as Xander went for the drinks.

Buffy looked at Willow, leaned and whispered, "So, how big was it?"

Girl-talk, what would women do without it?

Willow went beet-red and tried to shrink herself to hide.

Buffy chuckled, "ah, cmon. Spill."

Willow stammered, "It was thicker than I thought."

"Ooh, someones being naughty. I didn't knew you had it in you, Willow. Good job." She winked at her.

Willow herself had no idea why she did that… but inside couldn't help but cheer in response for her boldness. She had noticed all the training she was doing these days was having a very positive effect.

With all that training and eating tons of highly nutritious food to recover their HP. It was affecting her body just the way it should, it had a very positive effect on her. Her bras were little tighter… She had thought she'd lose a cup size with all the training, but from the research, she now knew nutrition also plays a huge role.

Well, good for her, whatever you say about Cordelia or Buffy, they were both very pretty girls. If she wanted to compete with them for Xander's attention, she'd need a damn good body to do that. Her women's intuition was telling both girls were at least more interested in Xander now. There is no way she's letting go of her man.

* * *

Patrolling was pretty much waste of time. Very few vamps to be dusted. Bumping into Angel, he found Buffy trying to excuse her way out. He had no idea what was happening, but now it was very much in front of his face.

Buffy was avoiding Angel. Why, he didn't have any idea, nor he cared about a wee bit.

In all, Xander was happy and bit confused with the emotions he was feeling. He was happy because Buffy was avoiding Angel. He felt confused because he cared about Buffy and this behavior was strange.

At the end of the Patrol, they said goodbyes to Buffy and started walking towards Willow's place.

With her parents out of town, her place was becoming his second home.

"Hmmm, I should start looking into renting a small place for myself. It wouldn't be that hard." He wondered about that. Would he need to emancipated to rent a place or show an income proof?

His thoughts were interrupted by Willow nudging him.

"Xander, do you think Buffy would be alright?"

"No idea, Wills. Even thought it was just a few hours ago, with time dilated dungeon, we spent quite a lot consoling her."

"Do you think we should keep an eye on her just for tonight?"

"How would you do that, Wills?"

"It's simple, we stalk her outside her place. As she goes to sleep, you create an instant dungeon and we enter into her place."

"You know, that's not a bad idea, but you are forgetting her enhanced senses."

"Don't worry about it, I talked about that, her senses are not registering dungeon creation… yet."

Xander wondered about that. They'd have to keep an eye on Buffy for a few days. May be it'd be much better if they spend the whole night in time-dilated dungeon. Time do blunts any kind of emotional issues.

"You know what I am thinking Wills?"

"Hmm."

"What we should do is, go to Buffy's place, and then spend the whole night in time dilated dungeon. That's about 48 Hours of Time-dilated."

"Why would you do that?"

"Basically, with us helping, it'll blunt the emotional damage of the kill in a couple of days. Even though I think she's very strong, we shouldn't leave her alone at this time ."

Willow nodded in response and they both started moving faster towards Summer's residence.

After entering her room, he destroyed the dungeon and sat on the chair in Buffy's room. Her lights were switched off but she wasn't asleep yet.

With Slayer senses, she immediately sensed their arrival and jumped in a ready stance.

Buffy looked at them and then whispered furiously.

"What the hell are you two doing, here?"

Xander chuckled sheepishly and said, "Well, we were thinking about you and decided we wanted to spend time with you."

Buffy glared in response for a few seconds and then sighed.

"Xander, I am not a kid. I'll handle it."

"You don't have to handle it Buffy." Willow said with a soft voice. "We are your friends, if we can't help you with this, then who else will?"

"Willow is right, Buffinator." Xander commented, knowing it is always getting a response from her.

All he got was a weak glare from a slayer, he knew this wasn't right. Buffy had a sense of energy, that was missing. He looked at Willow and created another time dilated dungeon.

Buffy sat down and patted her bed in response. Willow moved towards her and sat down closer to her. She could see unshed tears in Buffy's eyes, so she hugged her once.

Xander, who was watching this scene, sat down in the chair and propped his foot on the bed.

"Xander, foot off my bed. It stinks."

With a sheepish action, Xander put his foot down and looked at Willow.

"Willow this was your idea, so what's the plan?"

"Plan? I thought you'd have some plan?"

"Wills?" Xander groaned as Buffy chuckled. "Well with time-dilated, we have two days worth of time, we can spend doing anything. I propose to train. We slept during the evening. I think some training will be good for us?"

"Grrr… Xander, all you can think of is training these days" Buffy massaged her temples.

"Well, that's not a bad idea, Buffy. With training we can both catch up with Xander's level too. In just a short time, Xander has faced a couple of groups. I don't think this is the end of the hunters."

"Ok, we'll train. I can't use any kind of external magic, so I am going to be putting hurt on you, Xander" Buffy turned to him.

"You can Buff, as long as you kiss the boo-boos."

Both girls chuckled at his response and started preparing for their training session.

* * *

The training session was exhaustive. Buffy was beating the shit out of him. Well, at least she tried to. He was stronger and faster than her, that was enough for him to use all of his knowledge of martial arts. Like always she was poetry in motion. He noticed, she was learning and picking it up very fast.

Spending a few hours on training and feeding themselves. They decided to take a nap. With night out in the dungeon, it wasn't going to disturb their habits. They had freshened up and ended up laying together talking about random crap.

So it wasn't that much of a surprise when Xander found himself waking up to Buffy's pretty smiling face. She was awake and looked amused.

"Well, your stake woke me up."

"Dammit, it's not I am taking you hostage with my stake. And god dammit, enough jokes about it."

Xander groaned as he heard Willow giggling to the side. Buffy chuckled a little and then laid down her head on the pillow.

"This is nice."

"Yeah.' Willow mumbled a small response and yawned.

"It feels so odd to be waking up in unfamiliar bedroom."

Xander nodded and then looked at Willow, who was getting up for the loo. He watched as she moved towards the bathroom and picked up a couple of her clothes from the floor.

He felt his blood rush to all the wrong places, as he watched Wilow's fine toned legs and heart shaped ass. She was wearing a big T-shirt and thong like underwear. He wasn't sure about the thong because he was admiring Willow's backside.

She had an ass that'd put models in playboy magazine to shame.

"Wow."

Buffy looked at him with a sly look.

"Saw something you liked, eh?"

Xander blinked a few times, trying to process all of what he saw, maybe he was trying to etch it permanently in the brain. It was hard to say.

"I didn't know, she had something like that?"

Buffy raised her eyebrow, "How would, you know, unless you are in the habit of raiding girl's drawers. Do I have to lock mine?"

He noticed the smirk on her face.

"Well, no need, I know, you can even make granny panties look decent."

Buffy's jaw dropped. She realized its funnier when he uses those zingers on Cordelia than her… But she wasn't "Top Queen" of Hemery for nothing.

"Oh, you think so?"

Buffy turned slightly and lifted her t-shirt a little, showing her legs and backside.

"What do you think of what I am wearing? Do I look sexy in that?"

She always had great legs and ass. Her black underwear was doing nothing to hide her pert ass. Hiding yet titillating him with perfection.

With that scene in front of him, what a loaded question. A normal man would have broken by now, but he wasn't normal.

He had "Gamer's Mind".

Pttachk…

Buffy turned and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Did you just spanked me?"

Xander, who was more interested in his hand that he used to spank, didn't respond to her.

"That didn't sound right to me?"

Buffy blinked at the response. She had no idea what he's talking about. Suddenly she found her body lifted and lying on her stomach.

Pttachk…

Another spank.

"Yup, It doesn't sound right. I thought it should sound sharper in that movie."

Buffy, who was stumped by Xander behavior, had no idea how to respond to that.

"What movie?"

"Oh that movie with Roger Moore… anyways, I think we need to improve your diet. "

"Are you telling me I am fat."

Xander looked puzzled. "What are you talking about? Get up, we should change and eat something. I have enough food for a couple of months stored in my inventory."

Buffy nodded and as she watched Xander pick up his clothes and moving to her drawing room.

Xander walked out of her room and almost sprinted towards the Summer's drawing room.

"Holy crap, I spanked Buffy."

And survived it seems.

Buffy was a tease, he knew that, but that was going a little too far. He knew it was going to bite back in manner he had no idea about. But it was WORTH IT.

What's with the girls today, both of them are going to kill him. He had no idea Willow was hiding such a fine ass body. He felt little guilty about thinking her like that. But DAMN, At least, he'd die with a smile on his face.

* * *

He had survived and weathered the morning somehow. Buffy it looked like didn't knew how to respond.

Second day in that time-dilation was equally heavenly and hell. I think he saw more bare ass than in all of his playboy or hustler collections. Well, it was pretty close to being bare ass with thongs. The girls obviously knew what they were doing. They teased the hell out of him.

It was surprising he had the self control and patience to survive with raging hard-on all day. There were times, when all he wanted to do was rip their clothes off and… but saner heads prevailed. Hell, he got the temporary debuff of -10 INT, because he was being too horny.

What the hell happened to his shy, sweet innocent Willow? He would bet, it was Buffy, who was corrupting her?

Though his saner part of mind wondered, if girls were doing this to distract themselves from what happened?

He had a gamer's mind to counter the effect of killing a human. Girls copped it by flirting with him.

They trained alright, but those training shorts were a hell of a distraction.

"Arghh… they are still distracting me."

Xander palmed his face.

From the attack by John Savage, meeting with Abyss agent and then another attack in less than week time span. This was far too serious. Even though, Buffy, Willow and him have serious firepower combined, for some reason, a paranoid part of his mind was saying, they need more.

It'd be pretty stupid of them, if any of his friends get hurt or worse, died because he forgot to take few precautions.

This was the reason, he was walking towards Library to talk to Giles about it.

He knocked on the door and entered.

Giles looked up from the book he was reading and greet Xander.

"Hello Xander. What can I do for you?"

Xander looked at him with an odd look and said

"G-man, You need better dialog. Right now you sound like a NPC from games."

Watching a stern glare from Giles, he stepped back raising his hands.

"Anyways, Giles, it seems like whenever I come to look for you, I have more news."

"Hmm. Well, you are on Hellmouth."

Xander chuckled, "Yeah, but it has more to do with hunters this time."

"Did they…"

"Yeah, this time it was an ambush and girls were with me."

"Good lord, Are they alright?"

"Yeah, they are alright. These hunters were more in numbers and weren't that strong. It seemed to me, they had plans to capture Willow and me, because of our mana."'

"So, what's the problem, you are way too serious if it was a small issue."

"Yeah, during the fight, Buffy ended up killing a hunter , when she thought they had killed us."

"Good god." Giles sat up hearing that. It seemed to him, words escaped him at the moment.

Xander sighed, 'Yeah, without Willow's save, we'd have been stained on the ground. So her anger was kind of justified."

Giles looked at him with hard eyes, "Tell me, everything. EVERYTHING."

Xander nodded and started explaining in detail everything he knew.

* * *

They were both sitting and sipping that English blend. Xander thought about it and snickered lightly on how he had gotten into the habit of drinking tea. His thoughts were interrupted by Giles.

"So, I hope you are taking these attacks by hunters seriously?"

Xander was silent for a few seconds and then looked up at him.

"Yeah, that's the reason I came to you. I wanted to ask you about magical contracts."

Giles was surprised at the direction of his thoughts. Why and how would he use magical contracts to help him out with this situation?

"Are you planning to hire someone and pay for it?"

Xander blinked, "Can we?"

"You mean using Abyss Auction? Can we do that? Damn, I had no idea about that. But no, I was thinking about something else."

"Yes, you can hire people. At least you can get information whether its possible to hire someone or not and how to. What are you planning now, Xander?"

Xander grinned, "Don't worry about it, G-man. I don't mind the idea of hiring, but I am working on different matter altogether. So spill it, how to use them?"

Giles, like always, started cleaning his glasses, taking time to collect his thoughts.

"Basics is very simple to explain. You sign a magical contract and your own magic helps you follow through with it. Only people who have and know magic can sign these kind of contracts. Magicians use it because it helps when signers magic is pressuring him to follow the contract."

"Like any other contract, there are always way out of them, but again, it comes with price."

"What was that about Only people who have and know magic can sign."

"Xander, you have to understand, it needs to fulfill both requirements, "Have" and "Know". There are always greedy people who try to get people who have magic but not in the know to sign it."

Xander immediately interrupted, "then what about Wolframhart? Most of…"

Giles raised his hand to stop him and smiled with a tight expression.

"That wretched company uses soul as a base. When these people sign the contracts, they are signing up and selling their own souls. Its completely different than normal magical contracts. Though if you have no idea and can't differentiate, you might end up selling your soul."

"Whoa…"

"Indeed. That's how it is. In creating a magical contract, you have to follow a process, that ensures you follow the requirement of "Having and knowing" about magic. Otherwise, it won't work. I believe it was people in the Abyss or natural ability user who created this format."

"That's good enough. So can I learn it and have other people sign it?"

"Yeah, with your powers of absorbing information, you have an advantage. Though I have to recommend you to read through a few books on creating contracts and knowing the ins and outs."

Xander looked at him and then grinned, "Giles, people who want to get out of the contract will find a way. You know that. The people I want to have them signed up are not going to be like that."

"Who are talking about?"

"Don't worry your English head about it. Would you mind ordering these books from the Abyss Auction website? I want to get started immediately on this?"

"Answer my question, Xander. How are you planning to use it?"

"That's simple, I am planning to write a contract about keeping this group's activities secret. Some kind of warning system if you are going to share this secret accidental."

"Hmm… that's quite common way to use contracts. I have a copy of the book here."

Giles got up and walked towards the book cases, opening up, he pulled out a thick book. This book looked like it had seen better days.

"This is the book? It looks like it has 1000 pages?" Xander looked at it and said.

As he absorbed the information he received, "Thank Gaia, I have this ability to absorb information. I'd hate to go through this like normal folks."

Giles responded with dry tone, "That book takes about 6 months on average for US normal folks to finish it."

Xander chuckled, "I know how to create basic contracts. That looks a lot like a basic ritual. I am surprised people spend so much time on creating contracts. Drawing up sigils and symbols is going to be pain."

Giles looked at him in surprise, "Actually, there has been quite a few attempts to shorten the method or to create a method which can give an advantage to contract creator. So far, most of them fell quite short of it. That language in the ritual circle is one of the unknown or lost to time."

"Really, that brings a little relief to me. Anyways Giles, try to buy other books as well."

"You can buy other books at any store. They are normal law books that any Law student should have. I'll recommend you few books that'll help you write better contracts. But, I believe, in your case, you should go through as many books as possible. With your powers, it'll be like stacking up positive buffs."'

"Huh? Look at you Giles, using gaming languages and metaphors. Congratulations in arriving to new century in time."

* * *

He had three people in mind. He was also sure of two of them gladly joining. Even if they might be joining for their geeky dreams.

As he was walking through the school, he spied both of sitting and conversing animatedly. Andrew and John were first two of them, he planned to get in this new group. Not only they were smart, but also had the potential for magic.

Reaching closer to them, he pulled a chair and sat down. Activating the time-pause instant dungeon.

"You two, come with me. We gotta talk about it."

Andrew and John were looking at their surroundings with wide eyes.

"How did you do that? You are stopping time. It should be impossible."

Xander looked at babbling John and spoke, "Like I said, let's talk and I'll explain how am I doing this."

Xander got up, deactivating time-pause dungeon and started walking towards other side of the school. It'd be nice place to show off some skills and convince them to join his group.

Even though it'd be pain to train these two to his standards but having a competent back up would help them in long run.

During the walk, he was thinking on how to convince them and what to share for now without signing any contracts.

* * *

His talk with Andrew and John was fruitful. He showed off some of his basic abilities and explained them, how hes going to teach them and make them stronger.

Now all he needed now was to get that contract made.

Xander looked at the window pane and could see the silhouette of a pretty black girl.

"An assassin? Nah, she stands out too much for an assassin."

He smirked and wondered out aloud.

"Now what to do with my stalker?"

That girl almost jumped like she heard him and started moving fast luring him away from the crowds.

Powering up, he moved like a bullet, jumping and sliding away with the kind of dexterity that'd make a cat blush with envy.

Xander jumped in front of her and turned slightly towards her.

"If all the assassins were as pretty as you, I'd love to get close to you."

He waggled his eyebrows at her, watching her in fighting ready stance.

Getting surprised by reading the information on her. He almost missed her attack.

"What the hell? Slayer stop. I am not one of those damned vampires."

She didn't respond to him and kept attacking with her sword.

"Damn, wasn't Buffy supposed to be THE Slayer? What happened to the only one in the world."

He wondered while parrying swift attacks from the slayer. This was a second slayer he came across and yup, she moved like a poetry in motion. He expected that of a slayer. He could also see her inexperience fighting with weapons.

"Dammit, listen to me. I am not a vampire and not a bad guy."

Irritated at her for not listening, he moved and struck her wrist hard. Moving into her guard, he gathered chi in fingers and struck her sleeping points. Knocking her out he wondered.

"Now what do I do with a slayer?"

* * *

**Xander Harris (Lvl 30)**

**Title : Battle-nut**

**HP :** 3759

**MP :** 4308

**STR**: 60 (114) | **VIT:** 61 (115.9) | **DEX:** 62 (117.8) | **INT:** 101 (190) | **WIS:** 40 (52) | **LUK:** 30

**Status** : Slacker Status (-10 INT/WIS), Stoopid (-10 INT, -5 WIS).

**New Status Equipped** : Battle-nut +10 % in STR/VIT/DEX. (STR/VIT/DEX – 123/125/127.1 during Battle)

**Willow Rosenberg (Lvl 26)**

**HP :** 2149

**MP :** 3384

**STR:** 47 (82.7) | **VIT:** 48 (85) | **DEX:** 47 (83.2) | **INT:** 118 (193) | **WIS:** 50 (99.8) **| LUK:** 22

**Status:** Heart-Mind Body Skill to STR, VIT, DEX, INT and WIS +10% Passive / +30% Active

**New Status Acquired/Equipped** : Elemental Witch – +30% damage, - 30% mana use for elemental magic.

**Buffy Summers (Lvl 33)**

**HP :** 2564

**MP :** 1536

**STR:** 31 (92.8) |** VIT:** 30 (91.4) | **DEX:** 33 (95.5) | **INT:** 16(13.7) | **WIS:** 8 (11) | **LUK:** 21

**Status:** Slayer +50 to STR, VIT, DEX, HP/MP Regen 5%Heart-Mind Body Skill to STR, VIT, DEX, INT and WIS +10% Passive / +30% Active

AN : I am sorry for almost two month break between these chapters. A death in family and my own injury delayed it so far. Only recently I was able to type this out, and my healed hands and fingers are now itching to spit out the rest of the chapters. So expect new chapters soon.


	9. Chapter 9

"So Giles, what do you think of her?"

Xander asked about the black Slayer. She was still unconscious and sleeping on the sofa. He turned towards Giles and looked in askance.

Giles, who wanted to bang his head on the table for all the headaches his charges gave him.

"Xander, I am glad you brought her here. I'd rather you didn't bring young unconscious girls to my apartment."

"Hey… It's not like it was right to bring her to the library. I couldn't take her to Buffy's or Willow's place too."

Giles sighed and looked up, "So how long will it take her to gain consciousness?"

Xander grinned and said, "Oh, she's conscious, all right. In fact, she was conscious a few seconds after I laid her there."

Kendra knowing her act hadn't fooled her captors, opened her eyes and sat up. She was surprised she was still alive and free. But, then again, her captor was a demon of unknown origin and stronger than her. She knew, she wouldn't live long if he decided to kill her. Though she had no plans in going down without a fight or maybe even taking down this demon's partner.

Xander, who was watching her closely, guessed her intention and pulled Giles back as she lunged to attack him. He didn't want to fight in Giles' place. So he immediately charged mana in fingers and froze her using acupressure techniques.

"Dammit Giles, don't you watchers have any kind of secret handshake or something?"

Giles, who was surprised by the sudden movement from his companion and was only just beginning to settle down, glared at Xander.

"What?" Xander defended himself. "It's the right idea. Tell her that I am not a dark spawn and you are not my minion."

Giles settled down and looked at the Slayer. "My name is Rupert Giles and I am the council assigned watcher here at Sunnydale. If you were coming here the council would have told me. So tell me who are you, who is your watcher and what are you doing here?"

Kendra, even if she was a little confused about finding another watcher here, was defiant. "I'll not tell you anything, demon scum."

Xander chuckled and pointed at her… "Hey Giles, I told you, use your secret handshake or something."

Giles knew, it was a lost cause with Xander, so he moved towards the phone and started dialing.

"Calling the council, G-man?"

"Yes, Xander, I am. I am the watcher assigned to the Hellmouth. Buffy is alive, yet we have a Slayer here." Giles was silent, listening to phone ringing with little impatience.

"Yeah, I can tell, she's a Slayer. How come? Buffy is alive, you know."

Giles hmmed in response as the phone kept ringing. "I think during the fight with The Master, she died for few seconds. Maybe that was the cause for calling another Slayer." Giles raised his hand to stall Xander from speaking.

"This is Rupert Giles. Yes. Right now, I have someone here with me, the new slayer. I would like to know about her circumstances?"

Xander watched Giles talking on the phone. For a second, he wanted to enhance his ears to hear the entire conversation, but he decided not to. He moved towards Kendra, who was looking at him with suspicion.

"Hey, my name is Xander. I am a Wizard, I help Buffy Summers, who is a slayer and has been for the last one and half years here. So what's your story?"

Kendra looked unsure, but she didn't feel like sharing any details with whoever this Sander was.

"Ok, look, I'll release you. Do you mind, not trying to kill us?" Xander said and tapped her pressure points, releasing her from frozen state.

Kendra was surprised by the actions of this demon… "no, maybe he is a Wizard like he said." She wondered.

Xander shrugged, "Suit yourself."

"Kendra Young."

Kendra was startled by hearing her name.

"She is a charge of Mr. Sam Zabuto. It seems like she was called around the same time Buffy fought the Master." Giles said, as he walked towards them. He took off his glasses and started cleaning them. Which made Xander face him seriously. That was Giles tell, when he was sharing something Apocalypse-y.

"It seems like some seer predicted some kind of event where she's needed here."

Kendra looked up at Giles. This information wasn't something Mr. Zabuto would have shared with anyone except maybe the head of the Watchers council. Maybe, she should confirm it by herself.

"Mr. Giles, I would like to call my Watcher, before sharing anything else."

Giles nodded and motioned towards the phone. "Here, this is the phone number I got from the Council." He gave her a slip of paper.

She was surprised it had Mr. Zabuto's number written on it.

Xander looked at all of this and snickered silently, "Damn, since when did we become characters out of spy movies?"

He watched Kendra connect with her watcher and then Giles talking to this Zabuto guy. It seemed to him, at least they were now allies.

He groaned as something came to him, "Buffy won't like another Slayer usurping her throne. She's way too territorial."

* * *

Angel was doing what he did best. Brooding. This was the third time, when Buffy had avoided him. At first he thought maybe she was distracted by the events that happened on Halloween and then maybe it was that Ford guy… Now he felt, there was more to it.

"Why is she avoiding me?" He asked aloud and didn't get any answers. He was alone, that left him a lot of time to brood… or rather think. "There is something going on here. Buffy is avoiding me."

"For some reason, whenever I see the kid, the hair on my neck stands up… something like magic?"

He thought for a few seconds. Yes, it seemed like Xander was dealing with something magical. That kid was the universal butt-monkey of supernatural elements. How did he go from no spark to suddenly becoming a powerful witch?

Maybe that's also the reason why Buffy's been avoiding me lately. Even if Buffy acted shallow sometimes…err.. Most of the time. She had real depth. Yes, it has to be something magical. There's no way, she would change so much without any external influences.

It seems like he'd have to talk to Willow or maybe Giles about this. Going directly to Buffy or Xander would be stupid. "That's it. I'll check tomorrow if the kid is really magical and then talk to Giles about it." Angel decided and went back to his thoughts.

* * *

Last night had been eventful. After the slight issue with pretty new slayer, they had to decide her lodging issues. Giles was adamant about not having a young girl staying with him. They had to do some fast talking with Ms Summers and Buffy for a few days stay.

That made training with an irritated Buffy quite fun. What was that saying, "big fun in little packages"? Or something like that. For a girl who was 5'3" and barely 110 soaking wet, she was a pain to handle when irritated. It was hell on earth for the last 2 days of training in the time-dilated dungeon.

Right now, he had to track down Andrew and John again. This time getting them to sign that magical contract. Xander spotted both of them and signaled them with a jerk of his head. Both nodded and started packing their bags.

It wasn't much later, they were sitting in front of him.

It was John who spoke, "So Xander, what's the news?"

"The news is this." Xander pulled out magical contracts from his inventory and put it on the table in front of them. "These are magical contracts. It has basic things about not spilling secrets accidentally or otherwise. Even though I like you guys, but I think the contracts are needed."

John and Andrew looked at each other. Before they could speak, Xander interrupted once again.

"The thing about the contract is that you guys can't use it unless you have and know magic. So I am going to teach you a couple of magic spells right now."

This statement perked both of them up in excitement.

"Whoa, really? Xander, are you really going to teach us magic spells?" Andrew was doing a good imitation of Willow babble (Patented and TM).

"Yes, even if you don't join our group, you'll still have to sign the other contract, for not spilling our secrets." Xander pointed towards another contract in front of them.

"So you'll learn magic regardless of your decision to join us." Xander said and then grinned. "Now tell me are you guys ready to learn magic?"

Andrew raised his hand, "Eh, Xander we don't have much time right now… Lunch will be over soon."

Xander looked smug, "Oh, I didn't tell you guys before. Right now you guys are in a time-dilated dungeon. So we have a few hours to kill."

This statement caused their eyes to bug out in surprise.

"Time-dilation. Holy, molly… You can do this with magic?" John whispered in surprise as Xander nodded in response.

"Ok, don't be surprised when you see a pop up like you'd see in a game. My magic is similar to that."

"Game, Xander?"

Before John could speak anymore, a blue pop up blinked in front of him.

**[Xander invites you to join his party - Scrappies]**

**Click "Yes" to Join.**

**Click "No" to Decline.**

"Whoa/WOW." Both guys were looking wide-eyed at the pop ups. They immediately clicked "YES".

Xander nodded, "Good, that'll make this easier, otherwise I had no idea if it was even possible for me to teach you guys magic."

Xander once again dived into his inventory and pulled out a few books and DVDs.

"First is this book. This is about magic spell "Magic Arrow". It basically shoots arrows at the target." He handed them a copy of the book. This was the most basic Magic arrow skill he found online. Spinning arrow will come later in training.

They both received another prompt about learning this skill.

"God, you have a skill book ability? Is that why you were paying us to create notes and material." John said, showing that even after being surprised, he was thinking. Good, he needed people who could think.

"Umm-hmm. Learn it." Xander pretty much commanded.

John and Andrew clicked on learning the skill and watched the book burn and be absorbed by them. Both blinked, trying to shake away the brain fog from immediate knowledge absorption.

Andrew lifted his hands up and shouted, "Magic Arrow".

True to the spell, mana around his formed into an arrow and shot towards the wall, impacting it.

Before John could try his spell… Xander dragged them down on their chairs. "Sit down tight for a second. Andrew no more shooting, unless I say so." Seeing cold eyes from Xander, both of them gulped and sat down, expecting something really worse. Xander sighed and then said. "What do you know about Gaia theory?"

Once again, it was John who connected the dots. "Are you saying Gaia is alive?" Andrew looked gobsmacked at that statement.

"Alive? Hard to say. But it has a will. And due to that Will, you can do something to expose or harm nature or magic by reckless use of magic like that. Andrew, you are lucky that we are in illusion barrier. Gaia helps create these barriers so that we can train or fight without harming her subjects. So please avoid that, unless you want to get dusted."

Xander started explaining all about what he had learned from Giles. It didn't take too much to convince them not to train unless they could create their own illusion barriers. Of course, he shared with them the news about hunters too. It'd be stupid to paint a target for them. After being told all the relevant information they eagerly signed the contracts and joined their group.

"So now you have a couple of more spells and then we'll do small training sessions. This here is a magic shield… and this DVD is all about martial arts."

Xander said as he handed them a couple of books and DVDs. Both of them gladly absorbed the information.

"Now say, [Status], you'll see a status window. Those are your stats. Right now we are going to build your basic stats. When you increase your stats, I'll help you level up."

All of this was too much for them to handle, so they just dumbly nodded and started following Xander's instruction.

* * *

Angel was looking at the group from quite some distance away. He had noticed that Buffy seemed to be more aware, if he was there or not. He had no idea if this was because she was a Slayer. He knew, Slayers got stronger as time passed and as they gets more experienced. He had seen first-hand, when Buffy was able to get up and kill the Master. So this distance was good enough with his eyesight.

It looked like they were having fun, laughing and teasing each other. He sighed at his destiny or fate, for being like this. It was then he noticed, Xander slapping Buff's ass and squeezing it. In response, Buffy just laughed and pushed him away. His eyes narrowed at that kind of behavior from Buffy. He was more irritated, when Xander lifted Buffy on the shoulder and spanked her few times.

If he wasn't sure earlier, then he was now. This was something magical, which must have been affecting Buffy. He knew, they were close friends, but slapping butts and squeezing. That was how couples behaved.

Willow, who had a massive crush on him, was also laughing. She would have been jealous, he had seen that many times on her face when Xander gave Buffy more attention. She hid it, but this time, there was no jealousy on her face. Had he enspelled Willow too?

He knew Xander suddenly had magic and seeing this only confirmed it. This changed behavior would need him to investigate. He never expected something like this from Xander of all people. He shook his head in frustration and anger. With the kind of magic rolling off him, he wouldn't be able to confront him face to face. Mages often were pains in the ass.

He decided to check with Willow at her house. He'd keep an eye on them for now. In his bout of jealousy, he didn't notice dark eyes narrow at him.

* * *

Willow was listening to Buffy gripe about the career fair. Xander was just nodding along what she said. She almost rolled her eyes at him. Even with his magic, he was such a dumbass. She wanted to jump him, snog him and ride him long and hard….

Buffy noticed her glassy eyed stare and flicked a few times in front of her face, waking her up from her daydream. She giggled at Willow's look and Xander's ignorance. She wondered for a second, if he was getting any love-relationship updates with his power. There were many games like that, where you could advance your relationship with anyone specific.

"You know Buffy, why are you complaining? With Xander's help, you can learn and master pretty much any field you want. Did you forget to practice on Speed reading and memorization techniques?"

Buffy looked sheepish… while Xander laughed at her. "Wills, even I forgot about those skills." Xander said and sighed, "Training for getting stronger is right now my main priority."

Ah, this topic turned the gang gloomy and broody.

"So Buffy, how's your tests going?"

Buffy groaned, "Do I like shrubs?" She flicked through the test and said, "I shouldn't even be bothering with this. Its all mootsville for me. No matter what, this aptitude tests says, we all know what I am doing?"

"Weeding out the unwanted?" Xander said, "Man, that's your actual job, only the dead variety."

"Like Wills said, you don't have to worry about these stupid tests. They tell you nothing important."

They suddenly noticed Cordelia walking by talking to herself about her tests and answers. "I aspire to help my fellow man" marks her tests, "as long as he's not smelling, gross or dirty."

"You can help your fellow man by shutting your gob" Xander said with an irritated tone, "and swallowing sometimes. It helps."

A few kids who were listening to their conversation, lest at that. Buffy, who was drinking water, snorted it out through her nose and the coughing fit didn't help. Cordelia, whereas, was, well gobsmacked.

Xander turned and looked at Buffy, who was in between coughing and laughing. Ouch, that didn't look that good.

"Asshole."

Cordelia said in anger and walked away. Xander, who heard her, flicked a little stone towards her, hitting her on her rump, making her jump and turn around and look at him.

He chuckled and noticed both Willow and Buffy glaring at this action… though he could tell, they were amused too.

* * *

Angel knocked on the window, he had been here before with Ford. This time it was Xander.

Willow opened up the window and exclaimed, "Oh, Angel… what are you doing here?"

"I have something to talk to you about."

Willow paused and then spoke, "This is the second time, and you are coming like this? Is it something like that?"

Angel had to internally applaud at Willow's quick uptake. He nodded and then asked, "Can I come in?"

"Ah.. No, my parents are home." She blushed, "I don't mean it in that manner."

Angel smiled slightly. He hadn't noticed earlier because of Xander, but now he could feel it. Her magic had grown and felt more stable? He knew, she had started practicing magic last year. He also knew, she was frustrated by her lack of growth in that regard. But now her magic felt far more stable.

"I have something to talk about Xander. Can't speak about it outside here."

Willow thought for a minute and then said, "Ok, come in."

Angel jumped through her window and then stayed there. He didn't want to take more liberties with the invitation.

"I am here to ask you, if you've noticed something about Xander?"

"Something like what?"

"I recently noticed Xander gaining magic. He has far too magic than it should be for any practitioner."

Willow was surprised at that information. She didn't know Vampires could sense it like that.

"I know you've been trying to do magic for the last six months or so. You know how hard it can be for a beginner to even lift a pencil. I can tell, if Xander had been practicing or using magic."

She nodded her head in response. She knew the reason, of course. But it was Xander's reason, if he wanted to share it or not. Knowing Xander, he'd never share it with Angel. His mad-on for Vampires was all out in the open for everyone to see.

"About that, I know the reason why he now has magic. It's personal and we confirmed it with Giles. So it's safe."

Angel was a little stumped at hearing this.

"Oh, are you sure about that? Such sudden growth in magic is almost impossible, unless you are involved with something forbidden. I know, it's not a nice place to be."

Willow was a little irritated at this questioning, but she didn't show it.

"Yeah, we are sure. Xander got a little boost during the Halloween incident. He went as a character who could use a lot of different types of magic. He didn't retain any of the magical abilities, but his own got kick-started."

The more he listened to Willow talk, the more it felt like she was just humoring him.

"I noticed, how Buffy is behaving around him. It's not something she would have done."

Willow's eyes narrowed in anger, and he could feel the spike in her magic aura. Frankly, he wanted to run and hide, until he couldn't feel it anymore.

"Are you saying, he's using magic to make Buffy like him?" She scoffed at him, "Xander would never do anything like that. I don't know if you forgot, even when he was not in control, he didn't try something like that."

"Buffy is the Slayer, she has a base level immunity against things like this. She would have sensed it, unless he was far too good. Like you said, he couldn't grow that fast in just twenty something days."

"Buffy and he," at this Willow sighed, "Recently something happened, which only increased their bonds. They are now far better friends than they ever were. She's now more relaxed around him to joke around and let her hair down."

Again, all of this sounded just lip-service to Angel. He was now sure, both Willow and Buffy were enthralled by Xander's magics. He wanted to punch something in anger and frustration. But knew, he couldn't do anything here. So he just nodded.

"I just wanted to let you know about what's happening. So if you and Giles can look into this, I'd feel better."

Willow nodded and then gestured toward her window. Realizing the conversation was done and over, he moved out.

This was not how he expected the conversation to go. He had expected some help from Willow. With her crush on Xander, she would have listened to anything that would have looked like obstruction to her love life.

In his dark mood, he didn't notice someone creeping up behind him and knocking him out. He was out cold, before he could even realize, he had been ambushed.

* * *

When the trio walked into the library, they weren't much surprised to see Giles muttering and flipping through the books. This time, though, he looked more serious.

"When it rain, it bloody pours."

Xander could only hear Giles by enhancing his senses. He also noticed Buffy stiffen for a second before relaxing. He leaned and whispered, "What was that?"

She shook her head and turned towards the door. It was Kendra, who entered.

"I sensed her just now."

Xander looked surprised at that, "Hellmouth interference?"

This time, Giles noticed them.

"Ah, good. You are here. I am afraid, I have some bad news for you."

Buffy groaned and allowed herself to fall onto the chair, "Of course, you do."

Xander noticed Kendra eying her warily. He smirked at the thought of those two fighting for territory.

"Cat fight, yeah." He murmured with slight excitement in his voice.

Of course, as always, slayer senses heard him, both of them glared at him. Thankfully, Willow, bless her heart, saved his bacon once again.

"Giles, what happened? Are we looking at something apocalypsy?"

"Yes, Willow. Kendra is here with a warning. I am still compiling all what I could find. So far, the only thing it says about darkness rising."

Xander scoffed, "And? What's the news in that? Darkness here rises every bloody day."

"Yes, indeed."

There was a slight pause from Giles as he looked like contemplating his words. "What you see here," as Giles points to his book, "is about Du Lac, a Theologian and Mathematician. This article describes an invention of his, which he called 'The Du Lac Cross'."

"Why would someone go through the process of inventing something and then giving it a weak name like that?" Xander wondered aloud. "How about going with 'The Amazing Cross' or "Cross-o-Matic."

Buffy glared and hissed at him, making him back off with a chuckle.

"The Cross was more than a mere symbol. It was used to understand certain mathematical texts to decipher…eh. Hidden meanings."

"So are you telling us, those vampires went through all this hassle to get a basic decoder ring?" Buffy was miffed at some nerd vamp ruining her day.

"Uh, actually… yes. I suppose I am."

Willow interjected, "According to this, Du Lac destroyed every cross except the one buried with him."

"Why destroy your own work?"

Giles said, "Perhaps he feared what might happen if it fell into wrong hands."

"Now it is in the wrong hands. And guess what guys, we have to fight it." Xander responded at thought of dusting some more fangs.

Giles looked at him and spoke, "Right now what we need is to find out what's in the book before they do. Which means we can expect to be here later tonight."

Willow smiles broadly at this, "Goody! Research Party!"

Buffy gets up, "Speaking of, I really have to bail, but I promise I'll be back bright and early tomorrow and ready to slay."

"This is a matter of some urgency, Buffy" Giles stopped her.

"I realize that. Well, you have to admit, I kind lack in the book area. I mean, you guys are the brains." Buffy said, "Hey, Kendra here is good with that. She can help you. I'd only be here for moral support."

Xander realized what it was all about. "It seems like, she's going to meet up with eternal brood-meister."

He thought, "So after avoiding him for some reason, she decided to go directly to the source. Even though I am curious, ditching Willow here would be bad for me."

Buffy looked at him, knowing, he would interject and stop her. But getting no comments from him, she wondered if he realized why she was leaving.

Willow said, "She should go. Y-y'know, gather her strength."

Buffy said goodbyes and left. Xander turned towards Willow and whispered, "She meeting up with Angel?"

Willow stiffened for a second and then sighed, "Yeah."

"I thought so. She had been avoiding him for some reason. So I am not surprised about this."

"Really?" Willow was surprised by him showing a mature side. She also realized, next news she had for him would have him spewing fire at Angel. "Speaking of Angel, He can sense that you now have magic."

"Really? Damn,… that's… I don't know."

"Yeah, and he thinks you somehow enspelled Buffy into liking you more."

Xander was furious at hearing this. "That bastard. I am going to burn him slowly."

Giles noticed their interaction and was surprised to see Xander's temper (and magic) flare up like that. "What happened, Xander?"

Xander looked at him and then at Willow urging her to explain.

"Giles, I talked to Angel last night. He can sense Xander's magical power. And he thinks, Xander has used some sort of magic to increase Buffy's affection for him."

Giles eyes narrowed at hearing this from Willow. He had no love for the undead, no matter if he helped them or not. For a few seconds, he wished, his magic wasn't bound, he'd teach that fool a lesson. But looking at Xander right now, he knew that the vampire was going to be deep fried and crispy soon, if he didn't handle this properly.

"Calm down, Xander. We'll handle him later. Right now, you need to focus on the present."

Xander looked at him and grudgingly agreed. "Ok, I am going to smack him a few times though."

"Good enough. Add a few from me too."

Xander smirked, "Oh Giles, that'd be my pleasure."

Willow rolled her eyes and walked towards Kendra, who looked a little lost. She decided to befriend the new slayer.

* * *

It wasn't even an hour since Buffy had left and they were now flipping through the books. Thanks to their speed reading, it was going much faster. Suddenly, the door was slammed open.

His first movement was preparing his mana bolt, but seeing Buffy with a worried expression, he calmed down.

"Giles!" Buffy was almost shouting. Her clothes looked disheveled and dirty.

She walked over to the table and smacked her hand on it. There was ring which Giles recognized instantly. "There was this demon. He had this ring. He attacked me, when I was looking for Angel."

Kendra stiffened at hearing this, but nobody noticed her.

"Dammit, this demon was quite strong. My normal punches and kicks were useless on his armored skin."

"How did you defeat him, Buffy?"

"Xander recently taught me a technique called internal destruction. It bypassed his armored skin and attacked his insides directly."

Giles was a little stupefied with that, "I think, I have heard techniques like that coming from orient."

"This is Taraka's ring." Kendra interjected.

"Indeed. Thank you Kendra for conforming it for me." Giles nodded towards her.

Buffy stopped whatever Giles was going to say, "No, that's not important. I went looking for Angel. I didn't find him. He's gone. He was supposed to meet me, but now I couldn't find him at his place or anywhere normally he hangs out."

Xander scoffed, "He's a vampire, Buffy. He must be doing vampiry things. You know, skulking around, checking necks and stalking teenagers."

"And glitter-glow in dark?" Willow couldn't help herself, earning a chuckle from Xander and glare from Buffy.

Giles glared at both for interrupting him.

"Buffy, this Taraka business is important. They are hired assassins. If they are attacking you, then your life is in danger."

There was pin-drop silence in the room. He could see the kids were taking this seriously. So he continued. "Taraka in their history have never lost a contract. Killing and stopping their assassins aren't easy at all. You kill one, another takes its place."

"So what does mean for her, Giles?" Xander looked straight in his eyes. "Hiding from assassins is not going to be the right response. We should try to find them and then hunt them down. With Willow and I backing her up, we can take more than a few assassins."

"Yes, that could be one response. Making it an expensive target. But you don't know who put out the contract for her and how much they can spend."

Buffy who was silent so far, couldn't take it anymore, "But, what about Angel? He's gone. Do you think, someone took him out?"

"That's very much possible, Buffy. Right now, I believe, all of you should go home and prepare."

Xander looked up at that, "Yeah, right. We need to level up a few times. Right now, these assassins are our top priority."

Buffy who was teary-eyed at the thought of Angel's death, glared at him. He could tell, this was not going to go well with her. There was too many incidents, one after another were happening around them. But, they needed to get stronger, a lot stronger than they were right now.

Increasing their skills and raising their personal levels should help gain extra points.

* * *

**Xander Harris (Lvl 31)**

**Title **: Battle-nut

**HP** : 3866

**MP** : 4377

**STR**: 63 (119.7) **| VIT:** 64 (121.6) | **DEX:** 65 (123.5) | **INT:** 101 (190.1) | **WIS**: 40 (52.2) | **LUK:** 30

**Status **: Slacker Status (-10 INT/WIS), Stoopid (-10 INT, -5 WIS).

**New Status Equipped** : Battle-nut +10 % in STR/VIT/DEX. (STR/VIT/DEX -129.1/131.2/133.2 during Battle)

**Willow Rosenberg (Lvl 26)**

**HP** : 2301

**MP** : 3521

**STR**: 50 (91) | **VIT**: 52 (95.2) | **DEX:** 51 (93.3) | **INT: **118 (197.1) | **WIS**: 55 (108.9) | **LUK:** 22

**Status**: Heart-Mind Body Skill to STR, VIT, DEX, INT and WIS +10% Passive / +30% Active

**New Status Acquired/Equipped **: Elemental Witch - +30% damage, - 30% mana use for elemental magic.

**Buffy Summers (Lvl 33)**

**HP :** 2612

**MP : **1610

**STR:** 33 (95.5) | **VIT: **34 (96.9) | **DEX: **36 (99.9) | **INT:** 21(21.1) | **WIS: 8** (11) | **LUK: **21

**Status**: Slayer +50 to STR, VIT, DEX, HP/MP Regen 5%Heart-Mind Body Skill to STR, VIT, DEX, INT and WIS +10% Passive / +30% Active

* * *

**AN :** I had a few issues with this chapters, which stumped for a week or so. Then I started to work on my new fic, "SGC Unleashed." It's a Stargate SG1 story. I am almost done with third chapter for that fic, Read and review.


	10. Chapter 10

Xander watched Buffy, he hated seeing her so dejected and sort of haunted look wasn't helping.

"Hey Buff, what do you say? Let's go to Willy's, bust some heads and find out why this Taraka is in town?"

Buffy looked up, that look in her eye promised tons of pain.

"At least she is showing some spirit." He thought.

With Buffy in the lead, they started moving fast. It was then, he sensed danger and pushed both Buffy and Willow out of the fire.

"Sniper." He growled, even though that hurt a little, his eyes charged with mana, were tracking the trajectory of the bullet. Buffy and Willow moved in tandem towards the direction he was looking and he followed behind them.

"That assassin is moving. Buffy focus on your sensing range. I am faster, give me back up." Xander said as he sped up towards the running assassin. Whoever he or she was, she was good, moving at a pretty decent pace.

The second he landed, he activated the illusion barrier and immediately moved back with a yell of warning. "Grenade."

A wall of the earth moved and covered the Grenade, as three of them moved towards the assassin. He noticed that the grenade wasn't able to destroy the earth construct. "Wills is getting good with her Earth element." He mused.

They had cornered their assassin, a woman, a Lara Croft wannabe? Shorts, top, pretty much loaded with guns and ammunition. "Lara Croft is hotter." He had no idea why he decided to air his thoughts.

In response, he got shot in the chest. Blood started to pool around the wound on his chest. "Be careful, guys, that bullet was mana enhanced. Let's put her down hard and fast."

Thankful to his Gamer's body enhancement, he only lost HP points. "Fuck, this was one of those situations where armor would have helped them." Xander thought with a little regret. Spending too much time on training when he knew, magical items in games were greater leverage.

Willow shot almost invisible blades of wind towards the assassin. She created these techniques while practicing with Buffy. The assassin moved through as many blades as she could, and deflected which she couldn't avoid with her gun.

"Enhanced items." Willow growled, making the assassin back off a little. She was fucking pissed, no one hurt her Xander. Her prodigious brain was working overtime and her affinity with all the five elements were on display.

Xander and Buffy were watching her with their jaws almost touching the ground. Buffy started to move, Xander stopped her. "Buffy, not the right time. She is pissed and you don't want to be in her line of fire. Trust me." Xander said. Even as a mousy nerd, she was dangerous. There was a reason, even Cordelia didn't say more than few scathing remarks here or there. Oh yeah, nerds often had a mean streak a mile wide. Willow was the greatest nerd of them all. Xander almost shuddered at what she did to one those Cordelia's former groupie.

Willow shot a few more invisible blades and then literally vanished from their vision. Hitting the assassin hard in her gut, throwing back in the wall. Willow wasn't done yet, a hand coated with invisible blades seemed to pierce and strike the assassin simultaneously, destroying the wall behind her.

Pissed off, she didn't wanted to get blinded by dust, Willow, used her ability with Air, and cleared the area of dust.

Xander, who was watching her kick ass, whistled. "She is showing off now." He chuckled.

"Xan, are you okay?" Buffy looked at him.

"Yeah, it was a mana enhanced bullet. Did more damage than a normal bullet. Nothing big though." He commented. "We need armor and magical items. I have been favoring my skills in fighting, but crafting and acquiring magical items is often game changing."

"Yeah, she was able to block those air blades with her gun too."

Xander nodded, "Buffy, try to stretch out your senses. I don't want anyone else getting a drop on us."

Xander noticed the assassin getting up, even after almost getting butchered by Willow. He had to be impressed at her resilience. He raised his hand and started creating a magical arrow. Condensing a high amount of mana in the arrow, and increasing its rotation. Buffy, who was closer to him, shivered with the amount of mana that arrow was radiating. She realized just before he fired what he was going to do.

Xander jumped closer to Willow and let it go. The arrow was like a bullet and it pierced -the assassin's skull, like it was paper and destroyed everything behind her. Willow was shocked at the display, coming out of her furious haze. She turned towards him. Going through her actions for the last few seconds, she realized why Xander jumped in to kill the assassin.

"He's trying to save her innocence." Buffy murmured. Xander was a guy like that, a lovable, self-sacrificial goof, even when he was weaker, he would have done the same thing. Pulled the trigger so that his friends don't have to live through this.

"Willow, stop hesitating with him." She thought and sighed, "There are many girls who'd love to ride him long and hard. Especially when he now looks so yummy." Buffy walked over towards the group and wasn't surprised to see the loot there. Her sharp eyes read the name of the book. "The art of Gun-Fu", she snorted at the title and noticed, this time instead of money, the loot dropped were those guns she was using.

Putting all of the stuff in his inventory, Xander stretched a little. He turned towards them, "Let's go guys."

* * *

Walking into Willy's bar, they weren't surprised to see many of the patrons inside. Just the news that the Taraka were on hunt in Sunnydale, would have sent them packed here. Xander figured he saw more demons today than in all of his demon hunting gig.

Buffy made a beeline to Willy and lifted him up and slammed him on the table. The loud bang pretty much stopped the whole bar. None of them were strong enough for any worries. He leaned towards Willow.

"Just the way he behaves with Buffy. Did you ever have a feeling that Willy is masochist?"

She looked at him wide-eyed and shuddered in revulsion. "Never ever speak to her about it."

Buffy with hyper senses, heard them and dropped Willy on the floor. She turned and looked at them with visceral loathing on her face.

"Ah, she heard it." Xander commented, watching Buffy mouth, "I am going to kill you two" to them. From the corner of his eyes, Xander noticed a hulking green demon slowly moving towards them.

'Ugly thing." Xander thought as he started to read his stats and almost lost his composure. Before the demon could attack Buffy, Xander decided to handle it. Leaving Buffy to freely interrogate the dark spawn gathered here.

He stepped in front of the demon and looked at him. "Sit down, or I'll bury you."

The demon growled, "Hyumann, I bury you." With that, he swung his fist at him. Xander matched it with his fist, striking and blasting him over the other patrons, who were now looking at him scared.

"Good, they should be scared of us, more than anything else on the planet. Fear is good." Xander thought with a sneer on his face. "Does anyone else feel like trying?" Xander said and shrugged, looking at every demon in the bar.

"We have some questions for you. Answer it and we'll kill you faster."

One stupid demon raised his hand, like he was in class, "Do you mean, 'Answer it or we'll kill you faster.'"

Xander chuckled, "No, I meant, what I said. You are all dead, you just don't know it. How slow you die, will depend on how slow you are in speaking."

Watching the demon get up, Xander wasn't surprised to see him charging towards him. Taking a page from Willow's book, he charged his air element around his hand, sharpened it and with a swipe of his hand, split the demon across the middle.

"Ewww… Xander, stop making a mess like that." Buffy complained.

Xander just shrugged and leaned on the bar looking at the rest of the bar. "Told you anything?"

Buffy shook her head, "No, I'll make an offer he can't refuse."

Xander rolled his eyes, "Buffy, cut the "Godfather" act. Doesn't suit you."

He was noticing the demon recovering due to his blood's regenerative properties. He had read a few books on aspects of demons, otherwise he would have wondered how it'd heal a human. That thought niggled at his mind… He grabbed the regenerating demon and dragged it out of the bar.

Buffy noticed him dragging out a demon without a care. Hearing the noise outside, she wasn't surprised he was beating the shit out of that odd regenerating demon. Seconds later, Xander walked in with a smirk on his face.

Buffy turned towards Willy, "So, tell me, where is Angel?"

Willy, who watched Xander cut up the demon without any hesitation, almost pissed in his pants. "Wasn't that kid, the goofy loser of the group?" He wondered. Hearing the Slayer's question, he turned to her, "My buddy Angel? Do you think I'd let him fry?"

"What do you mean fry?" She asked.

"He was just five minutes away from becoming a crispy critter. Some black girl tied him in the cage, left it out in open to burn."

Buffy immediately realized who that black girl was. "Kendra. I am going to have a heart to heart talk with her."

Xander put his hand on her shoulder, "Relax, Buffy, Willy saved him. Didn't you, Willy?"

Willy seeing those cold eyes, stammered out, "Yeah, he said he was gonna stay underground. You know recuperate."

"Is that the truth?"

"I swear on my mother's grave! Should something fatal happen to her, God forbid."

'Good. Remember Willy, you need to be afraid of me and the Slayer." Xander threatened him. "Oh, one more thing. The Taraka is in town. We already took out two of the members. So what's up with that?"

"Harris, mate. This is the first time I am hearing of this."

Xander looked at him and tried to judge if he was lying or not. "So if you have any information…"

"I'll call you first, mate."

"Good enough." Xander nodded and fished out a few dollar bills and put it on the table for him. The trio turned and walked out of the bar.

"Fuck me, when did that Harris kid become so dangerous?" Willy spoke out loud, while his patrons in the bar nodded in response. He had no idea how the kid became so powerful, but now, he was probably the most dangerous resident of the town.

* * *

Even though, Buffy was relieved with the news, they had to physically hold her from going to town on Kendra's ass. In the end, she decided to go back home. With Mrs. Summers out of the town, Buffy was glad that she wouldn't come under any cross fire.

After looking for Angel for some time and not finding him, they decided to head back home and train for the assassins. Even if they neutralized two assassins, who knows what else they'll face.

Xander was laying down on the bed, with Willow beside him. He knew, after becoming the hunter's target and now taking a shot meant for Buffy, and getting injured. She wasn't very happy with him. She showed her displeasure by bombing the crap out of him. He shuddered, remembering their training and Willow using magic without any control. Rather, with full control available to her.

Heck, even Buffy joined her in beating him up.

Willow, besides him looked at him. "You know, mister, you do not have to shelter us from the crap."

Xander hugged and pulled her closer. "Can't help it. You are my girls, there is no way I am letting you get hurt."

She bumped her head into his chin.

"Ow"

"Good. We are not made of china. All of us are fighting the dark together. I know why you killed her."

"Like you said, we are in this together. I'd rather you not face the horrors. I couldn't stop it from happening to Buffy, but today I could. If I can delay it, even for a second, I would think it's a job well done."

Willow looked him in the eyes and snorted, "Chauvinistic pig."

He knew with an amused tone of her voice, she was just teasing him. So he decided to spank her.

The moment his hand touched her butt, his brain froze. The sensations on his hands were telling him, she wasn't wearing any panties. Even the blue screen in his mind, didn't stop his hand from roaming, like it had a mind of its own. Confirming him that she was bare ass… No thong. Bare ass, the soft feeling on his hand activated his other mind.

Yes, she wasn't wearing any panties.

In just a few seconds, his mind was returning to its full capacity. Giving a proper squeeze of her ass and again confirming it, he realized what kind of position he was in. Before he could think of pulling his hand away, without looking like a guilty thief. He felt a hand grab his erection and stroking it, forcing another reboot of his mind.

The recovery was fast this time and once again, he noticed, he was still stroking Willow's bare flesh and she was fondling him with care.

"Wills…" Before he could say anything else. Willow looked him in eyes with naked, wanton desire. She raised her leg and put it over his waist, almost straddling him. With his erection free of confinement of the clothes, he could feel it almost touching her.

"Xander, make me yours."

Her eyes and words, tore away any willpower he had. Leaning into a kiss, he plunged inside her with a thrust, eliciting a gasp from her mouth. "Yes, you are mine, now and forever."

**[Relationship Tab Activated]**

He almost wanted to bang his head on the wall. He ignored the pop up in favor of his Willow.

* * *

Buffy exited the bathroom. She needed that bath to clear her head. She took out her anger on Xander, which she wasn't very proud of. She'd have words with Kendra about how things go in the Sunnydale. The second she stepped into the bedroom, she froze.

In front of her, on the bed, with Willow's legs resting on his shoulders, Xander and Willow were completely naked, having sex.

"He's fucking her." She corrected her thoughts as she watched him thrust into her. Her first thought was, like a piston. Her second thought was, Willow was right, he was hung like a…err gifted, yes, he was gifted.

Her third thought was, the scene in front of her was HOT. The training had done wonders for both of their bodies. Now they had the bodies of fitness models, muscles in just the right places, no extra fat. They were hot. Uppercase HOT.

Her fourth thought was, after watching this scene, today her fingers were going to break. She decided to slip quietly from this room and take care of her needs.

For some reason, she found, her feet were heavy, like lead. She stepped back and slid down the wall.

* * *

Willow was beaming, glowing brighter than the sun. Buffy knew the reason why. She finally got her man. She also noticed, today Willow was wearing jeans that were just a little tighter. A sexy top, which accentuated her assets very nicely. For a second, Buffy lamented about her moderate chest, which comparing Willow's almost perky c-cup.

She couldn't even pout, with a beaming Willow around her.

"Congratulations."

Willow's face went red, understanding her message. "Whh… what do you mean?" She somehow stammered out.

Buffy gave her an amused look and rolled her eyes. "Well, you rode him, long and hard."

Willow sputtered in response. Buffy laughed and leaned into her. "Did you two forget that I was in the bathroom?"

Willow, embarrassed, hid her face with palms. She had no idea, what or how to respond to this.

"Don't worry, I watched you two for about half an hour and then realized, you two aren't going to stop anytime soon."

"Half an hour…?" Willow looked at her wide-eyed, positively terrified at the aspect of getting caught having sex. Or maybe she was embarrassed. Buffy wasn't really sure on that.

Buffy chuckled at the faces she was making, "Don't worry. I always said, you'll fit together perfectly."

"And I saw how perfectly fit you two were."

She chuckled some more. "So, how did you seduce him?"

"I wore his shirt. You know, those extra-large shirt."

Buffy blinked for a second and then realized, "You mean…"

"Yeah, just the shirt." Willow grinned.

"Oh Willow." Buffy sniffed and wiped an imaginary tear from her eye. "My Wills is growing up. Seducing a man all by herself."

"BUFFY!" Willow shrieked, while Buffy laughed and hugged her.

* * *

Xander had no idea what happened during the night. Well, he knew what it was. Willow and him, they were always together, along with Jesse. He knew, she followed him, rather than the other way around. Come to think of it, looking back, he realized Willow liked him.

He felt like a heel.

They had sex for an hour, maybe more, yesterday night. He forgot how many times he came inside her. He was surprised that his physical stamina didn't translate into sexual stamina. Even though he understood, they were two different things. To improve sexual stamina, you need to have sex regularly. Common sense.

This was not the first time, he had sex. This was the only time, they went at it like animals.

It was thanks to their healing ability, they weren't sore. They went at it, after waking up in the morning, in the bathroom, after getting out, and once again a quickie while cleaning for the second time in the bathroom.

Speaking of the bathroom, Buffy should have been in the bathroom, when they started to have sex.

"So she saw us having sex." Xander wondered and then blushed. They were surprised to find Buffy missing in the morning. She skipped classes too. That's why Giles made him search for her.

"I can't believe you, you dragged me out of the bed for a ride? What am I? Mass transportation?"

The grating voice of Cordelia roused him from daydreams about Willow's toned legs and heart-shaped ass. He groaned, why he decided to have Cordelia drive him around the town was beyond him. He was a grade A dumbass.

"That's what a lot of guys say, but it's just a locker room talk. I wouldn't pay it mind."

"Oh great, so now I'm your taxi and punching bag." Cordelia groaned and then looked at him from the corner of her eye.

She almost shrieked, "You had sex. Right?"

"How the hell?" Xander almost gaped at her deduction. Do women really have some sort of sixth sense for relationships and sex?

Cordelia averted her eyes from him and looked at the back view mirror. She was jealous, a little hurt, and didn't want him to see it.

Xander was looking out, and didn't see the jealousy in her eyes.

"Well, anyways, we are there. Let's take a look inside." Xander said, getting out of the car.

A few minutes later, a fast inspection, pretty much confirmed his thoughts. Buffy wasn't home. It was good that Mrs. Summer's wasn't home too. It would have been hard to explain the torched patio. He didn't expect the assassins to attack during the day. Creepy bug man, yuck. He did the first thing that came to his mind. Burn it with the hottest fire, he could produce.

"How the hell?" Cordelia was looking at him with surprise and little fear.

He sighed, grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer. "I am not going to hurt you. So don't be afraid."

Cordelia hit him with her purse, "I know that doofus." She controlled her breath and said, "I know that… but how did you?"

"After the Halloween incident I found I had an affinity for magic."

She looked at him and realized the reason behind his massive change. She took a step, grabbed him and started kissing him without caring who saw them.

Xander was startled and almost stopped himself from squeezing that ass. Cordelia was smoking hot. For any hot-blooded male, it was going to be hard, really hard to stop himself from ripping her clothes off and taking her.

"Cordelia, look, we can't do that. Like you said, last time was an accident."

Cordelia stepped back, she regretted saying that. At first, she was worried about her reputation, but now, she just wanted him. She immediately turned around so that he couldn't see the tears forming in her eyes.

"So, it shouldn't be Buffy. If it was, you'd have been walking on air" She asked him.

"She has Angel, you know." He said and Cordelia rolled her eyes. She could see Buffy eying Xander many times. If Xander tried, it was pretty darn possible for him to…

She banished those thoughts from her head.

"I am not going to give up on you, you know." Cordelia said, "After all I am your first."

Xander gaped and then adopted a neutral expression.

Cordelia looked at him and exploded. "How the hell?" She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down. "How the hell? Was I not your first? You were a member of the geek squad. How the hell are you getting more pussy than Jocks here in this dumpy little town?"

"Ah. Ha aha ha…" Xander laughed awkwardly while scratching his head.

She pulled him down again and glared, "I am waiting."

Xander got a little irritated at her demands, so he flipped her, turned her around, pulled down her panties, and spanked her few times. "You don't get to demand anything from me."

Cordelia, who was rubbing her butt, glared at him and then crossed her arms under her breasts.

Xander smirked, "You know that breast lift thing works only on more innocent type men."

She almost smirked, and put her hands on her hips. "Well, it works on most men. Like that horn dog Jessie."

"Cordelia..." He glared at her, making her back off, and then he sighed. "I loved him like a brother, but he was a horn dog." Xander said and then glared, "But you don't get to say it."

She rolled her eyes at him, reminding Xander of something.

"You know…" Xander had a smirk on his face, "I dedicated my first time with you in Jessie's name."

"What the heck does that even mean?"

He shrugged, "It sounded cool to me when I did that. Oh yeah, yeah, I had decided to give another dedication 'Here's to that ass, Jessie wanted to pound.' Ah pity, I won't get that chance now."

She gaped at him. Xander chuckled.

"You are an asshole, you know that." She glared. Her eyes, watching them, he almost gulped, they promised both pain and pleasure. Watching her now, she was removing her panties from underneath her dress. Twisting, almost dancing and showing off her figure.

"How about you become mine?" She caressed his crotch with one hand, "and I'll let you." And with the other hand she guided his hand on her ass. What a tempting offer. "And your little Xander agrees with me too." She smirked.

Watching him resist, she scoffed and then turned towards the door.

"Let's go." She said twirling her panties in her hand. Cold and hot. She was like that.

Of course she had to adjust the strap on her shoes, giving him a perfect view. This was going to be a very, very long journey. Very long journey indeed.

* * *

After all the glowing and teasing, it was time to get to business. Buffy glared in Kendra's direction, who was fidgeting in her seat. It took few heated words, some ass kicking threats to come to an understanding. Kendra also realized, she had underestimated the blonde Slayer.

Giles looked at them, "Enough, Buffy. I agree with everyone here, until we deal with the Spike and Drusilla issue, you two will work together." Both Slayers nodded to him.

Giles said, "We believe that dark power Kendra's watcher referred to. You see Drusilla's not only evil, but she's, uh, well, she's also quite mad. And-and if she's restored to her full health, then, uh, well, there's absolutely no telling what she might do."

"Den we will stop Spike." Kendra said.

"Oooh, good plan, let's go charge!" Buffy mocked her.

"Buffy…"

"It's a little more complicated than that, John Wayne." Buffy continued.

"Yes, I'm afraid it is." Giles interjected before Buffy could speak more. "You see, Spike has also hired the Order of Taraka to keep Buffy out of the way. We were able to neutralize two of their assassins."

"Da assassins? I read of dem in the writings of Dramius."

Giles was excited about hearing from another bibliophile. "Oh really? Which volume."

"I believe it was six, sir."

Buffy almost rolled her eyes at the kiss-up.

"Uh. How do you know all this?" She asked her.

"From me studies."

"So obviously you have a lot of free time."

Kendra sniffed and spoke in that haughty tone, "I study because it is required. The Slayer handbook insists on it."

Buffy was this close to smacking her, when she saw Willow's eye light up. "There's a slayer handbook?"

Buffy interjected before Willow could get too excited.

"Wait, handbook? What handbook? How come I don't have a handbook?"

Giles snorted, "After meeting you, Buffy. I realized that, uh, the handbook would be of no use in your case."

"Well, what do you mean it would of no use in my case? What's wrong with my case?"

Giles ignored her and looked at Kendra, "Kendra, um, perhaps you'd like to show me the, the part in, Dramius Six, where, it refers to the Order to Taraka. I seem to have never been able to get through that book. It was a bit stodgy."

Kendra smiles and respond, "It was bit difficult, All done footnotes."

Giles and Kendra laughed out loud.

Buffy rolled her eyes and spoke to Willow, "Hello, and welcome to planet pocket protectors."

Giles stopped and said to her, "Buffy, Principal Snyder was snooping round after you."

Buffy almost stumbled at that, "Career fair" and groaned.

"Best make an appearance, I think" Giles smirked a little.

Buffy dragged Willow out of the library.

"Get a load of the she-Giles."

"Creepy."

"Ew, I'll bet Giles wishes I was more of a book geek."

"Giles is enough of a book geek for both of you."

"Did you see how they were vibing?" Buffy spoke and started mocking them, "Volume six, ha ha ha!"

Willow soothed Buffy's ego, "Buffy, no one could replace you. You'll always be Giles' favorite."

Buffy snorted.

"Of course, you will. You're his slayer. The real slayer."

Buffy sighed and looked in thought, "No. I wonder if it would be so bad, being replaced."

She turned to look at Willow, "Maybe, I mean, maybe after this thing with Spike and the assassins is over. I could say, "Kendra, you slay, I am going to Disneyland."

"But not forever, right?" Willow looked a little worried.

"No, Disneyland would get boring after a few months. But I could do other stuff. Career day stuff. Maybe I could even have a normal life."

Buffy wondered, how it'd be without graying herself from worry over regular apocalypses.

* * *

If the looks could kill, Cordelia would have killed and buried Willow many times over. Buffy noticed her glaring from the other side for quite some time.

"What crawled up her ass and died?" she wondered.

Now she wasn't surprised whenCordelia had cornered them in the empty classroom.

Cordelia looked at Willow.

"I am not going to give up on him."

"You can try Cordy." Willow snarled. Buffy raised an eyebrow over this. Willow was doing more snarly thingies these days. And there can be only one him, Xander. Since when did Cordelia want a piece of him?

"Hello? What did I miss? Since when did Cordelia started liking him?" she asked, interrupting their glaring match.

"Since Primary school I guess."

"Oh, so all that sniping was their foreplay of sorts."

Willow shrugged, "You could never tell with the witch."

"It was stupid of me to let him go, because I cared a little about my reputation." Cordelia spoke with a wistful smile on her face.

She glared at Willow, "Otherwise, he wouldn't have touched you."

Cordelia, being the witch she was, decided to put high octane on the fire. "After all, you aren't his first."

After all, a little white lie never hurt anyone. She smirked, turned and walked away.

Willow sputtered in rage and confusion, "Cordy, what do you mean?"

She turned with a smug smile on her face, "Seven inches."

Buffy was having a hard time processing the fact that Cordelia got Xander first.

"Wha?" In response, she could only gape in astonishment. Feeling the magic build up closer to her, she immediately turned and grabbed Willow.

"Cool down, Willow. No lighting the bitch on fire."

Buffy started to drag her away, otherwise Cordy was going to be crisp fried.

"Sheesh, temper on this girl." Buffy thought and chuckled, "Xander, you stud. Now you have girls fighting over you. One of them is very dangerous."

* * *

**Xander Harris (Lvl 35)**

**Title **: Battle-nut

**HP** : 4257

**MP** : 4853

**STR**: 66 (138.6) **| VIT:** 67 (140.7) |** DEX:** 68 (142.8) | **INT:** 101 (210.3) | **WIS**: 40 (60.2) | **LUK:** 30

**Status **: Slacker Status (-10 INT/WIS), Stoopid (-10 INT, -5 WIS).

**New Status Equipped** : Battle-nut +10 % in STR/VIT/DEX. (STR/VIT/DEX –135.3/137.3/139.4 during Battle)

* * *

**Willow Rosenberg (Lvl 30)**

**HP** : 2592

**MP** : 4069

**STR**: 54 (104.8) |** VIT**: 56 (109.2) |** DEX:** 55 (107.3) | **INT: **129 (223.2) | **WIS**: 60 (126.6) | **LUK:** 22

**Status**: Heart-Mind Body Skill to STR, VIT, DEX, INT and WIS +10% Passive / +30% Active

**New Status Acquired/Equipped **: Elemental Witch – +30% damage, - 30% mana use for elemental magic.

* * *

**Buffy Summers (Lvl 35)**

**HP :** 2812

**MP : **1889

**STR:** 37(95.5) |** VIT: **38 (96.9) | **DEX: **40 (99.9) |** INT:** 31(39.2) | **WIS: 8** (11.8) | **LUK: **21

**Status**: Slayer +50 to STR, VIT, DEX, HP/MP Regen 5%Heart-Mind Body Skill to STR, VIT, DEX, INT and WIS +10% Passive / +30% Active

* * *

**AN : **This chapter was little lemony. I tried to write a little lemon, but it turned out a scientific dissertation on mating rituals of human. Far too dry for my taste.

**A little side note **: Buffy added 10 points to her INT. Willow added 5 Points in WIS, 11 in INT. Xander saved his points.

This chapter felt like a filler to me, but finally X/W took the plunge. I wanted to put more action than just curb stomping an assassin. So that fight only showed up Willow's skill as an elemental witch. Because of her practice, she's what you call fighter mage. She can kick ass or freeze your ass.

434

453


	11. Chapter 11

When Andrew and Jon entered the classroom they found Xander juggling with boxes. Getting closer, they could see he was playing with bullet boxes. "Hey Xander, wassup?" Jon decided to start the conversation.

In response, Xander threw one of the box towards him. "These boxes contain magical bullets. They'll break through small level of magical shields or barriers." Xander said, "Nothing impressive, but something like this is interesting. Isn't it?"

Jon opened the box and pulled out a bullet. It looked like a normal bullet to him.

Xander looked at them and then spoke, "I am showing you these bullets, cuz I am interested in knowing how to create more of it."

Before Andrew could speak, Jon interrupted, "We don't exactly know how to create those too."

Xander nodded and grinned, "I know, this is why I started teaching you magical disciplines. My goal was to create a support group that can craft, research, or if needed kick some ass."

"So you want us to become crafters? Magical items, armors, and weapons." Andrew was excited about the possibilities. He had been dreaming about this since Xander introduced magic to them.

"…and research." Xander added, " Magical R&amp;D you can say." He pulled out couple of books from his inventory, "Right now you have few basic duties, in magical research. To start with, we have mage sight. Its not as good as my observation skill. But it's a start. If you train with me, chances are it'll improve and adapt." Pulling out few more books, "These books are based on crafting. There is not much about this topic. This is a field where you learn through apprenticeship."

Andrew and Jon, both started absorbing the skill books. Jon was wondering, "Ok, so exactly what you were expecting from us?"

"Good question, I was waiting one of you to ask that." Xander grinned, "You know how in RPG games, we have armors or items which can improve our attributes passively and actively. If you guys were able to create say a mana recharging ring or stealth ring. Even though I am currently thinking about some kind of armor based improvement."

"Mana recharging? That sounds useful." Jon scratched his chin in thought.

"Yeah, on the Abyss Auction website, they have a ring which helps recharge ten mana points per minute. I am going to order couple of those rings. I don't know if its stackable or not." Xander explained.

"Abyss Auction? Isn't that site where you can even sell or buy slaves?" Andrew shivered.

"Yeah, I'll show it to you. I am not surfing as much, so you guys have to go through it. You can order few things from there but only on Giles' account. As a precaution." Xander reminded.

"By the way, how is your training with Heart-body skill is going?" Xander asked.

Jon and Andrew smirked in response. "With the kind of active/passive effects, do you really think we won't practice it?"

Xander chuckled, "Good enough. You guys are at level ten with average of twenty in fighting stats (DEX/STR/VIT). With your magic, you are safe from low level scum here in the city. You'll need to be at around 30-35 on average to be feeling any secure."

"What about hunters?" Andrew was still worried about getting kidnapped and used as mana battery.

"You guys are not natural ability user, so there is less chance of that. Even then, I want you guys to act like wiccan witches. There is not much of a crossover between them and ability users." Xander stood up and started to walk away, "Oh before I forgot. There is no training today, Giles has some plan to disrupt some ritual or something, we'll be busy with that."

"Wow, a mission." Andrew was excited, "hey, hey Xander, can we join with you?"

Xander turned towards him, "No. I don't want to expose you guys to her. She's a stickler for the rules."

"You don't trust her?" Jon asked him.

"I trust her to take care of dark spawn, but she follows rules too closely for my taste." Xander sighed.

"One would think you'd like this kind of person?" Jon chuckled.

"Not exactly. If we followed all the rules, we'd be dead in the first few months. Rules have a place, it's knowing when you need to follow them."

Xander said and walked away

* * *

As he was walking, Xander remembered the new relationship tab. He almost forgot about this new addition to his status. Activating his relationship tab, he noticed it was little different than normal. First, it was divided into three further tabs.

**Individuals**, **Gaia**, and **Sunnydale**.

Flicking through the "Individuals" tab, he saw the list of people he knew and his relationship status with each of them. For some damn reason, this stat had a range of one thousand.

"That's quite a lot of points to gain or lose." He wondered.

Willow had a "Honored status" with 950 points. There was another label which stated she was his girl friend.

Buffy also had "Honored status" with 920 points. A small statement - "She respects and cares about you", was enlightening.

Cordelia also had a "Honored status" with 900 points.

Giles had a "Respected" with 800 points.

"That's interesting. Buffy, Willow and Cordy, each of them have honored status with me. Honored doesn't necessarily mean they are attracted to me. Cordy has less points, even though we had sex once. Willow is my girl friend. Buffy is likely my best friend."

Relationship between people was quite complicated. He didn't expect much from this change. Just a few numbers couldn't exactly describe relationships.

Flicking through his list of acquaintances and friends, the numbers were mostly guesstimate from his point of view. He clicked the screen off. He didn't want to follow on this much. People were more than numbers.

Trying to gain points to manipulate his relationships might push him in a direction he didn't want. Just thinking of the fact, he shuddered. There were limits and lines, he didn't want to cross, and with this gaming system he had no idea when and how he'll cross that line. He pushed the thoughts of relationship tabs out of his mind and entered into the library.

* * *

Entering into the library, he wasn't surprised to see Buffy pacing, while Kendra looked relaxed. Buffy must be worried over Angel, there was only one guy who could make her worry. He looked around and found Giles working on translating something. Probably that decoder cross.

He walked silently towards her and picked her up. Her startled 'eep' was enough to distract others in the room.

Xander placed her on the chair, "Sit down for a minute, watching you pace was giving me a headache."

She glared at him, and then relented, relaxing in the chair.

"I'm just worried." Though her voice was soft, and he could hear slight tremor in her voice.

"Angel?" He inquired, getting a nod from her. "Dammit, he's like a cat, we need to put tracker and bell on him."

Getting a small chuckle out of her, he looked at Giles and asked, "Giles, anything we should know?"

"Ah, yes Xander. Give me few more minutes and I'll let you know."

Xander knew, he wouldn't get much more from Giles unless he was sure about the information himself. So he turned towards Buffy and started making small talk.

"You know, I killed another assassin. This one was stalking your house."

"Oh my god." Buffy exclaimed and then sighed, "I am glad mom's not here."

"Yeah, so am I. It'd be hard to explain burn marks on her patio." Xander chuckled, and then shuddered. Mrs. Summers was… well it was hard to define that woman. You could see how Buffy was her child, defiant, stubborn and able to kick ass.

"Cordy was grossed out from the assassin though."

"Oh? So you met Cordy there?" There was something in her voice, that Xander couldn't pick up. He shrugged and responded. "Yeah, a bug assassin. Well, more of worm assassin."

"Ewww… you and bugs, Xan. How many did that make?" Buffy chuckled at his expression.

"Hey this dude was completely different from mantis lady. He was a worm. Even I was grossed out."

Buffy just sighed, "How many assassins does that make?"

"Third? Yeah, you took care of one, Willow handled the one with guns, and I handled worms." Xander was silent for few seconds, "At least, we don't have to worry much. Right now I doubt any of the assassins are stronger than us."

Giles interrupted their conversation, "The thing is everybody is alright. We are under attack and we should not take it lightly."

Buffy nodded, "Yeah, but they are after me. Kendra can still move around without any hassles."

Giles looked in surprised at that statement, "You mean, you want to attract all the assassins and Kendra goes for the one responsible?"

"Yeah, it'd be much better. Buffy and I can handle few assassins. Kendra, You and Willow should plan an assault on this Spike." Xander spoke.

"No Xander. Buffy and Kendra will work together. You will have backup from Willow and myself." Giles corrected him. The reason behind the new team was simple. Giles didn't want the slayers to be exposed to ability user hunters. It may sound cold, but right now they needed a slayer stationed on the Hellmouth.

"And, uh, I fear the worst is still to come. I've discovered the remaining keys to Drusilla's cure. The ritual requires that, the presence of her sire, and it must take place in a church on the night of the new moon."

Buffy looked troubled at the news.

"The new moon? That's tonight." Kendra said.

"Exactly." Giles agreed with her. "I believe assassins were hired to stop Buffy before she could interrupt the ritual."

"Giles, they need Drusilla's sire. Meaning the vamp who made her?" Buffy looked uneasy as she spoke.

"Yes, What is it?"

Buffy looked down at her hands, "Angel. He's Drusilla's sire. That's why I couldn't find him."

"Man, that guy got major neck in his days." Xander commented, getting glares from everybody in the room.

Buffy asked Giles, "Will this ritual kill him?"

"Yes, I'm afraid it will."

She was pissed off, "We need to find this church. We need to find where this ritual is gonna take place!"

No body messes with her boy friend.

"Agreed, and we must work quickly." Giles agreed as he checked his watch, "We have five hours before sundown."

Xander looked at her, "Don't worry, Buffy, we'll save Angel."

Kendra was little confused, "Angel? But our priority is to stop Drusilla!"

Xander rolled his eyes, "Angel's our friend! Except I don't like him."

Buffy glared at Kendra, "Look, you've got your priorities, and I've got mine. Right now they mesh. So, are you gonna help me, or are you gonna get out of my way?"

Kendra considered her proposition for a second, "I'm wit you."

Buffy looked ready to make war, "Good. 'Cause I've had it. Spike is going down. You can attack me, you can send assassins after me, that's fine. But nobody messes with my boyfriend!"

* * *

"There are forty-three churches in Sunnydale?" Giles spoke in surprise as he was pulling out a roll of mints. "That seems a little excessive."

Willow chuckled, "Its the vibe from the Hellmouth, makes people pray harder."

"You should check, if any of them are closed or abandoned."

"Yeah, yeah. We got monsters, demon, but no Taraka?" Xander complained.

Giles turned to him, "Because you are looking in the wrong volume."

Xander slumped in the chair, "Why the heck we are looking into those guys?"

Giles was little exasperated with Xander's complaints, "You and Willow will be looking into those guys, while Buffy and Kendra will take care of Spike and Drusilla."

"Sounds good to me." Xander shrugged, "but what if they have extra muscle?"

"Don't worry, I'll be there too."

"Giles, I know you are competent, but I rather have Willow with Buffy and Kendra. Worst case scenario, she'll be able to drop the whole building on them."

"Yeah, yeah. I can." Willow was glad that Xander trusted her skills.

Xander grinned, "Willow is our one man-err, woman mobile artillery."

Xander got up and started walking towards Giles' office, "I think, I'll find the book in there."

When he entered the office, he noticed Kendra and Buffy getting along, as nice as they could, for the slayers.

"Hey ladies." Xander nodded at them and picked a book.

"Nice knife, Ken." Kendra was still little skittish around him, so he left without saying much.

Buffy rolled her eyes, seeing Kendra getting uncomfortable with Xander's presence.

"So I guess, dating isn't big with your watcher either?" She asked Kendra.

"I am not permitted to speak with boys."

Buffy scoffed, "Unless of course, you are pummeling them." That reminded her, "He wait a minute. Do you think that creepazoid might know where Angel is?"

"Creepazoid?"

Buffy nodded, "Yeah that guy who runs the bar. If he lied to me earlier, I might have a thing or two to say to him."

Her eyes narrowed at the thought, "Let's go. We should have talk with him."

* * *

Buffy shoved Willy up against the shelves of liquor bottles.

"Ah! Honest! I don't know where Angel is!"

Buffy pulled him back and then slams him again, "What about this ritual? What have you heard?"

Willy was terrified, he had no idea how the slayer knew about it. It'd be better to take few lumps from the slayer then become chow for Spike and others. "N-nothing! I-it's all hush-hush!"

Kendra scoffed, "Just hit him, Buffy!"

Buffy smirked, "She likes to hit."

Willy stammered, "You know, m-maybe I did hear something about this ritual. Yeah, I-it's coming back to me. But, uh, I'd have to take you there."

Buffy started dragging him out of the bar, "Let's go."

Kendra stopped her and said, "First we must return to de Watcher."

"Excuse me? While we run to Giles, this whole thing could go down!"

Kendra refuted, "But it is procedure."

"It's brainless, you mean! If we don't go now, Angel could die." She was getting irritated by the rules slayer.

Kendra's eyes narrowed, "Is dat all you're worried about? Your boyfriend?"

Buffy stopped again and turned to look at her, "No, it's not all, but it's enough."

Kendra scoffed, "It's as I feared. He clouds your judgment. We can't stop dis ritual alone!"

"Are you listening to me? He could die!"

Kendra once again tried to explain "He's a vampire. He *should* die. Why am I de only person who sees it?"

Buffy stared at her a moment, before turning around again and heading for the door with Willy in tow.

Kendra, "Are you dat big a fool?"

Buffy shoved Willy out ahead of her and left Kendra behind in the bar.

Kendra threw her hands in air, "Good riddance, den."

She looked at the way Buffy left and sighed. Even if she didn't like the way blonde slayer worked, she didn't want her to die. She pulled out the cellphone Giles gave her, "Hello. I am sorry sir. I can't stop Buffy going after Angel." She listened for few seconds, "Yes, I believe it's a trap." Again, listening for few seconds, "Yes sir, I can track her down."

She switched her cell phone on the vibrate and started tracking Buffy before she moved out of her senses.

* * *

Giles looked at the receiver, put it down and started wiping his glasses. This was a mess. Buffy tended to do what she wanted to do.

"So lemme guess, Buffy jumped into a trap without any back up?" Xander was irritated.

Giles just nodded and sighed.

"Dammit, I didn't even notice when they left." Xander looked at Willow and Cordy. Buffy told him about some friction between those two, and he was trying to put the fire down between them. Even though he didn't have any idea about their issue. He could easily guess it was Cordy who started it, and Willow with her new found powers and confidence wanted to finish it.

He walked over to Willow and picked her up by her waists, and started walking towards Giles.

"Sit down, Wills." Then Xander turned towards Cordy, "Would you mind not egging her on? We have some stuff to do."

Cordelia just scoffed in response. He knew that was the best he could get from her. So he turned towards Giles and Willow, "So how are we doing this?"

Willow looked at him and smirked, "I knew Buffy was going to do something like this. So I am already tracking her."

Hearing that, both Giles and Xander breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Good, then Willow." Giles looked at Cordelia, "Ms. Chase, I am afraid, you have to go on your own. You are untrained and we can't involve you with this."

Cordelia glared at him, she got up and started walking out. She turned to look at them, "Xander, I'll talk to you later."

Her statement caused Willow to glare at her with a furious expression on her face. Xander changed the topic to safer direction. "Giles, Willow and I, can easily reach there. What about you?" Xander asked.

Willow interjected, "We can put Giles in a mana bubble and then we can fly easily."

Giles hearing that paled at the thought of flying, in a mana bubble.

Before he could refute, Xander spoke, "Wills, only you can do that. I'll be jumping around, and create instant dungeons for us."

Willow nodded and then looked at Giles, "Ok. I can do that." Looking at Giles, she noticed him and try to reassure him, "It's ok Giles, It should be safe enough. Though this is my first time carrying someone else. But I think my magic is strong."

Xander was looking at her with a amused expression on his face. It was hilarious to see pale Giles getting comforted by Willow babble.

* * *

"Eligor. I name thee. Bringer of war, poisoners, pariahs, grand obscenity."

Spike turned back to the altar. Angel and Drusilla were both strapped together to a chain that hung from the ceiling.

"Eligor, wretched master of decay, bring your black medicine."

Drusilla giggled, "Black medicine."

As Spike picked up the Du Lac Cross with his gloved hand.

"Come. (holds up the cross upside-down) Restore your most impious, murderous child."

Drusilla said, "Murderous child."

"From the blood of the sire she is risen."

"From the blood of the sire, she shall rise again."

He grabbed Drusilla's left hand and raised it to Angel's, with her clasping it. With one swift stroke Spike stabbed the blade through their hands.

As a pulse of energy spread out, Drusilla drooped backward, feeling Angel's energy flow into her.

Spike looked at the process with excitement bubbling inside him, "Right, then! Now we just let them come to a simmering boil, and remove to a low flame."

Before he could do anything, Willy barged through the door and strode into the nave with the vampires and assassins escorting Buffy close behind.

"It's payday, pal. I got your Slayer."

Spike was pissed at the fool, "Are you tripping?! You bring her here?! Now?!"

"You said you wanted her."

Buffy noticed Angel and Drusilla tied together at the altar.

Spike threw his hands in air in exasperation, "In the ground, pinhead! I wanted her dead."

Willy refuted, "Now, that's not what I heard. Word was there was a bounty on her dead or alive."

Spike growled showing his fangs, "You heard wrong, Willy."

"Angel." Buffy whispered.

Spike smirked, "Yeah. It bugs me, too, seeing him like that. Another five minutes, though, and Angel will be dead, so... I

forebear. Don't feel too bad for Angel, though, he's got something you don't have."

"What's that?" Buffy was pissed and wanted to vent her frustration on him.

Spike looked at the assassins and vamps, "Five minutes!"

Before Buffy could move, she was attacked by another assassin and vamps. Vamps tried to hold her, in normal scenario, they would have succeeded. But today, she was far stronger, thanks to Xander. She kicked and broke a vamps leg, hitting another and breaking his neck. The Assassin tried to stop her assault, and he succeeded for a fraction of second, before getting interrupted by Kendra who entered through another door.

Buffy wished, she had an inventory space like Xander.

"Who the hell is this?" Spike was little confused.

"It's your lucky day, spike." Buffy smirked as Kendra decked him. "Two slayers."

"No waiting" Buffy feeling extra energy in her movement, punched him, throwing far away from them. Before she could move towards other vamps or the assassin. Spikes rose from the Earth and speared every single one of them.

"Good work, Willow."

Kendra was impressed, elemental magic was hard to do, and this witch did it casually.

Spike wasn't stupid, he immediately realized the situation was not in his favor. He decided to free Dru and run away. Watching a witch spearing his minions with earth spike only solidified his decision. He signaled for the minions who were on the fringes, watching the fights.

Kendra noticed Spike getting away, she ran towards him. She also noticed, Buffy was working furiously trying to free Angel. She wondered about Buffy's priorities for a second.

She exchanged few hits with Spike before getting brained by Drusilla from behind. Instead of killing her, Spike took the opportunity to run away.

By now, almost everyone had finished their fights. With Buffy's help, Angel was able to get up on his feet. Willow was controlling the fire in the church.

"Peace through firepower." Willow chuckled at her own joke and looked at Giles, who was still heaving out contents from his stomach. "It seems like flying didn't suit you Giles." Willow asked, getting a glare from him. She then used her water elemental magic to put out all the fires in the church. It'd do any good, if the roof fell on them. Where was Xander, she wondered.

* * *

Spike sighed in relief, he was glad, he was out of that church, "That chit, she was packing too much firepower." He shuddered thinking about that redheaded girl. He looked at Dru in his arms, bloody slayer didn't let the ritual finish.

Tucking her hair behind her ear, he looked at her and grinned. "Don't worry luv, I'll take care of ya."

Dru smiled and kissed him, then suddenly threw him on the side. If she hadn't, that sword would have beheaded him.

Spike watched in horror, as the attacker didn't stop and moved on with the technique cutting Drusilla's head and dusting her.

"NOOOOO!" Spike roared.

"That's the issue with seers, she saw your death, but not hers." He heard a feminine voice, casually describing how she did it. "Though seers are pain to handle."

He growled, "I'll have your guts for garter, you silly bint."

"Aww, Spikey, you need better dialogue." She taunted him and moved to attach him.

Spike showed her, why he was infamous. He noticed, she wasn't as fast as slayer. Using skills learned on the streets, he ducked and weaved through her attacks and tried to grab her. In response, she stabbed his arm with a knife, and kicking him in the stomach.

"Just because I don't have slayer level strength and speed, doesn't mean I am weak." She scoffed.

Next few attacks were similarly defended, Spikes both arm were bleeding from stab wounds.

He understood on some level what was happening in this fight, why he was losing.

"You are…" Before he could speak further, she sprayed something on him, making him scream in agony.

"I call this de-fang. Holy water in hair spray can. Nice invention. Isn't it."

He screamed, as she pretty much sprayed all the content on him. Without waiting, she moved and chopped his head off. Watching him dust, she snorted, "That's why I said, it's such a pain to handle to seers."

* * *

Xander watched as Buffy was walking Kendra to her taxi. He smiled as he saw, Buffy kidding with Kendra. "At least they are getting along. Now all I need to do is work on Willow and Cordy."

He sighed, when he heard Kendra calling Angel cute. He wondered if there was something wrong with this generation of slayers. Yeah, Angel could be called cute, but dammit, he was a vampire.

He started walking away, knowing he needed to talk to deadboy before Buffy could.

Few minutes later, he landed in front of Angel's place. Kicking the door open, he shouted, "Hey deadboy, where are you skulking."

"Harris." Ah there he was growling in the shadows. Though he never called him by his surname, what's with that, he wondered.

"Deadboy, stop skulking in the shadows and sit down. Treat it as your place."

"It's my place." Angel gritted out.

"Ah. How did you get the deed registered to your name?" Xander wondered out aloud.

"It's easy to do it. You go through a middleman who handles everything for denizens of nights." Angel responded. He was wary of Xander, that power he was sensing wasn't making him comfortable. For a second, he wondered if Xander came here to get rid of him.

Angel noticed, Xander was looking at him. He was silent for few seconds.

"You are afraid of me, aren't you?" Xander grinned and asked.

"Why would I be?" He responded.

Xander grinned and raised his hand. Angel noticed the change immediately.

"Now we can talk without any interruptions." Xander said, getting serious for a change.

"I am here to ask you, some serious questions."

"Or what? You'll kill me?" Angel scoffed.

"No, why would you think like that?" Xander chuckled.

The silence lasting a couple of minutes, that permeated through the room felt like eons. "Do you love Buffy?" Xander asked, coming straight to the point.

Angel looked at him and wondered for few seconds, "Are you here to tell me how our love is doomed?"

Xander shrugged in return and looked directly in his eyes, "Do you love her?"

"Of course."

"Good. I don't know if your love is doomed or not. Do you want a future with her?" Xander said, without taking off his eyes off Angel.

Angel chuckled, "There is no future for us." And he growled, "Is that what you are here to tell me? Huh Xander?"

"That I should get out of your way and away from Buffy", Angel was now shouting at him.

"Nah. I am with Willow." Xander spoke and then leered, "though if Buffy wants a threesome with us. I am A-OK with that."

Angel growled and jumped at him, found himself unable to move.

"Telekinesis." Xander grinned, and then getting serious. "But seriously, I want to know, do you want a future with her?"

Angel was feeling trapped in the air, and suddenly he found his foot on ground once again. This time, his voice was soft and haunting.

"There is no future for us. I am a Vampire and she's a human. There is no future."

He looked at his hands, "this is my penance, my destiny, to suffer for my sins in the dark."

Xander scoffed, "Stop with the melodrama. I am not a teenage girl that you need to impress. Just tell me if you want a future with her or not?"

"OF COURSE, I WANT A FUTURE WITH HER." Angel stood up and was shouting at him. This child, what did he knew about suffering. His thoughts were interrupted by a bottle bouncing on his forehead.

"Drink it. If you really want a future with her. Spawning little bastards, instead of siring it." Xander was silent for few seconds, before he made disgusted face, "Even though I find that thought revolting."

Angel calmed himself down, "What is it?"

Xander looked at him, "Nothing you need to know. Drink equals future." He stood up and started walking towards the door.

"I don't care if you drink it or not. Though if you do, you'll have a hard time impressing teenage girls with your sob story." Xander chuckled and kept walking away.

He was a little surprised at the sounds of Angel's scream and convulsing on the floor. He turned to look at him and chuckled. "Welcome back."

* * *

**Author Notes**:

Patrice is dead (Taraka assassin who took a shot at Buffy in the classroom), Oz never got hurt, so Willow and he never met. Willow is also with Xander. That pairing is 100% sure.

Will Oz join somewhere? No. Same for Miss Calendar.

This section of story arc is finished, tried to follow the cannon as needed. It was little irritating to use text and dialogue from the episode. Finally I am done with it.

Now from the next chapter, things will change. Almost all the pieces are in the play, and they'll play as needed.

For this story, I am working on the plot for next few chapters, and then I am going to write couple of chapters for SGC Unleashed (expect another chapter in day or two for SGC).


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